Here in peri urban Hobart we have to stay on top of managing rodents and birds getting into our chicken’s feed. Over the years we’ve tried lots of different designs and none of them have worked as well as we needed.
Enter this beauty. While trawling the world wide web I stumbled across this design on youtube for an automatic feeder. People – it actually really works and does everything it promises to do. It’s bird proof, weather proof and rodent proof – basically all our chicken feeding dreams coming true at once.
The basic premise is that the bucket is full of grain. A hole has been drilled into the bottom and a “ toggle” (aka an eye bolt with a chunk of wood attached) is installed which the chooks peck to access the grain – only a few grains at a time. This means they peck once, then quickly eat all the grain off the ground before doing another peck to get more grain – ensuring no excess grain is left out on the ground for rodents and birds.
One chook pecking the toggle which releases a small amount of grain. The other chooks have their heads down, eating off the ground.
This is an automatic feeder which means you don’t have to tend them everyday (as long as they have access to fresh water). This means you can go away for the weekend or just improve efficiency in your garden tasks.
Oh, and it’s dead easy to make – here’s how…
Ingredients
- One bucket with a handle and lid. I recommend either a 20 litre or 10 litre bucket so it can hold a decent amount of grain.
- One eye bolt – we’ve used a 5mm one.
- A chunk of wood.
Method
- Using a 16mm drill bit – drill a hole into the bottom of the bucket. This size of the hole will vary depending on what type of grain you have. We have mixed grain with chunky sunflowers included – so our holes quite generous. If you’re not sure, start with a small hole and gradually make it bigger until you hit the sweet spot.
- Drill a 5mm holes into the chunk of wood.
- Poke the eye bolt through, with the eye on the inside of the bucket.
- Screw the eye bolt into the chunk of wood – which I call “the toggle”.
Our mixed grain has different sizes in there so we’ve made our hole quite big to make sure they can all get through.
Edit: We’ve since switched to feeding them chicken pellets (crushed up grain) as the chooks eventually worked out how to “mine” the grain mix to only eat their favourite bits and leave the rest on the ground for the birds. The pellets have been working for us really well as they’re all the same size and look.
The 16mm holes in the bottom of the bucket
The toggle (chunk of wood) with a 5mm hole drilled into it and the 6mm eye bolt.
Poke the eye bolt through the hole with the eye on the inside of the bucket.
Screw the toggle onto the other end of the eye bolt so it hangs as seen above.
That’s it! Only three bits of materials to make the chook feeder of your dreams.
That’s it. Told you it was easy. Next up you can hang it in your chook run. Make sure you hang it from a chain or a steel rod so rodents can’t crawl along it to access the bucket.
Special thanks to Anton for making me a gorgeous spiral rod using the campfire as his forge.
The other hot tip is to make sure it’s not too close to the ground that rodents could jump up to hit the toggle to release the grain.
And don’t worry about the chooks working it out. They’re very clever when it comes to food, and will have orientated themselves to it within one day.
This has been a game changer for us. The flocks of sparrows (small birds) are no more and I’m feeling cautiously optimistic the rodents that live in our neighbouring bushland wont find this one.
The feeding station, nestled between our worm farm (on the right- an old bath in a timber frame) and the branch prunings from our goats which will be turned into woodchips or biochar.
Thanks so much for sharing this brill idea!!
Thank you very much I have been looking for a rodent proof feeder for years.
Thank you get help & little or no cost 👍
We have so many sparrows and rats getting a free meal at our place. I hope this sorts them out. Thanks
Thanks Hannah – my feeder just bit the dust and this looks amazing.
Hi Hannah!
Love this we have made two and the chickens love it! But is it bad for them to be eating off the floor, we have placed it away from their poop perch but we have a dirt floor like you, someone mentioned they could pick up parasites eating of floor. Just wondering what you thought?
No – it’s fine. They spend their whole life pecking/scratching in the dirt – it’s what they do. IF you’re worried about build up of poo in your run then you haven’t got enough deep litter in there to help absorb it. Deep litter is simply woodchips, mulch (carbon). You can then shovel out the run a few times a year into a compost pile – creates lovely stuff for the garden. 🙂
This looks great! Any idea if it might also work for ducks??
Not sure Linda – could try and find out 🙂
Great find! Thank you for sharing!
Would ducks figure it out do you think?
Not sure – worth having a crack at it to find out :-). Let us know how you go!
I did this, using a teaspoon as the lever (a Kat Lavers’ design). It didn’t work well with mixed grain, as the chooks pecks up the grains they preferred, leaving the boring grain on the ground whilst they toggled more of the good stuff out.
Uh, how is this rodent proof or bird proof? The chickens are dumping the feed on the ground and wild birds quickly learn to fly into the trigger to drop feed, not that they need to, the chickens leave plenty laying on the ground. Spend the money for a proper rat proof and wild bird proof treadle feeder. It needs to have a spring loaded door, a heavy counterweight system, and a narrow and distant treadle for it to work. The ones without these things don’t have anyway to prevent rats and wild birds from just pushing the doors or lids open. http://ratproofchickenfeeder.net/
Hi Al, Once the birds peck the “dongle” only some grain/pellets come out, they then proceed to peck the food off the ground before going back before more. We’ve tried a few automatic feeders like the ones you make and sell, but have had no luck with large birds and rats (and once possums) learning how to use them. This design’s been a big game changer for us and we no longer have swarms of birds hanging out or the neighbour’s rats.
Do you know if this works with fine grain or only coarse grain?
Great question. We ended up switching to pellets (crushed grain) as the chook’s were only eating their favourite grain and leaving the rest on the ground for birds. This doesn’t happen when you use one type of “thing”. Choose the grain/pellet size that suits how big you’ve made the hole at the bottom of the feeder – might take some experimenting!
That is helpful feedback. Can’t wait to try! I’ll let you know our results!
I have been looking for a rat/mouse proof feeder for quite some time, and I was delighted when I found this in YouTube.
Unfortunately it didn’t work with mixed grains. Chickens quickly worked out how to get their favourite grains – keep pecking the toggle!
” …they only eating their favourite grain and leaving the rest on the ground” and back to pecking the toggle.
Ah yes, we had this too and had to switch to chicken pellets which are all the same size and look. Now it works really well! I’ve also just edited this blog to share this info above :-). Cheers.
Great! I’m so excited with this feeder and it’s easy enough for me to make. Thank you so much for the great ideas.
No worries Lyn 🙂
Thanks for this Hannah, we’ve had really bad problems with sparrows in the chook run. We made the new feeder yesterday and the chooks seemed to work it out straight away, smart little birdies. Love your work 😊
Happy to help Dina 🙂
Did you make your chicken pellets or buy them?
We just buy them Yvonne 🙂
Thanks for sharing this idea, looks great! We’ve just moved and acquired chickens but have been having trouble keeping possums out of the chicken run. We’re working to improve the floppy fence and electrify if needed as they’re eating the chicken feed which we were leaving out overnight. Have you ever had trouble with possums accessing and working out how to use this feeder? Would love to find a possum proof feeder, my uncle who lives nearby said they’ve worked out how to use a treadle feeder at his place – they seem pretty persistent here in Northern Tasmania.
Hi Elyse, We don’t have possums in our garden (as we’ve fenced the whole property).
Great idea…will have a crack at it…we looked at a treadle feeder yesterday at a local produce store …it was $175 …not happening on our single income family…this feeder you’ve created will help encourage sustainability and reduce repetitive chook feeding tasks, so I can spoil them with more interesting/creative feed options every now and then whilst the everyday feed chore is done eg stringing together spinach etc…
Glad to help 🙂
Has anyone got any tips for teaching the chickens how to use the feeder? After a week of demonstrations they are still clueless! I’ve been hand feeding them (which is what they’re used to) at the feeder so they associate it with food. I’ve even been tapping the toggle in front of them. They eat the fallen grain but still seem to have no idea that they’re supposed to peck it!
Not sure Renae – hopefully they’ve worked it out by now?
My problem is that I have one particular chook that will spill all the food required for her to get to the black sunflower seeds. I’d hope any other chickens I get would eat the spilled food assuming any of them are smart enough to learn to peck at the toggle.
Yes – this is something people have said a fair bit to me. You’ll notice in the blog above I’ve edited it to explain how we’ve also had to switch to pellets (mashed up grains) to stop the chooks from doing this. Now it works perfectly.
Can I please ask, what pellet brand do you use? Thank you!
I don’t have one brand – I just use a high protein option
Wonderful idea
Will be using this for sure!!!
I made one of these and bought five 17 week old chickens. It seems they are not the brightest of birds as after a week and a half they still haven’t worked out how to pack the toggle to access the pellets. Any tips??? About to resort to buying a treadle feeder. I have tapped some pellets every day onto the ground under the feeder so they are attracted to the spot in the run and have demonstrated how to use it many many times.
I have 10 hens and a rooster. Do you think just one of these be enough? I love this idea and can’t wait to try it.
Thank you! Wondering if this would work for quails?
Made one like this but the food seems to get wet from sitting in the sun. What do you suggest to keep the feed dry.
Hi
I’ve made the feeder and looking good. Many thanks for the instructions.
I did wonder how it goes given the flat bottom of the bucket – when the feed gets a bit lower I imagine the pellets don’t come within reach of the hole? I’m thinking about how I could set up more of an internal funnel shape inside to help channel the pellets.
Great idea, and my daughter taught the hens (not the dullard rooster), to peck the toggle in one day. She asked me to drill a few small holes in the toggle and stuffed dried meal worms (chickens fav) in the holes!
Shocking problem though, the Norway rats, stand on their back legs and fling themselves at the toggle, dangle, and release feed to their buddies below! Blew my mind seeing this. Going to try notching the bucket up a few rings.
We actively dealing with decreasing a horrible rat issue right now.
Any other ideas?
Thanks for the awesome feeder idea!
Nancy-Canada
Hmm I wonder if you could attach a string to the eye bolt and run it through the top to be able to shut it tight when you are home. Maybe a couple weeks of that and opossum would give up. Then when it was left ‘open’ he wouldn’t be around.
Thanks Hannah for the design, I’m going to give it a go!
Do you happen to have any recommendations on a rodent proof waterer? I take it that the rats are attracted to my chickens’ water as well? Or is it just the feed they are after?