Grandpas Feeders Automatic Chicken Feeder - 40 lbs No Waste Poultry Feeder, Rat Proof & Rodent Proof Treadle Chicken Feeder, Galvanized Steel with Lid, Feeds 6-12 Chickens up to 10 Days

Great item. Very happy with it. My young spring chicks took to it immediately, the mature hens very a little more cautious at first. Limiting their food quantity behind the treadle really motivated them quickly to use it and now they all happily feed themselves. As for protecting against rodents, it appears to be doing a fine job. I am not seeing the food in the bin disappear suspiciously quickly or anything like that. I am putting crumble, dried worms, peanuts in shells, and other dried food through it.

There are so many reasons to like this unit. First and foremost, once your chicks have been trained on this, the lid will automatically close keeping it safe from rodents at night. What I really like about it is that my chickens can’t scratch the feed and throw it all over the coop and waste all my hard earned money! It is well constructed, mostly assembled and easy to finish up. They have you train your chickens by positioning the bar so that the base plate doesn’t move and the lid stays open the whole day. I’ve heard a lot of people complain that it’s a real pain in the butt to have to remove the screws at night so that you can close the lid. I disagree and if you look at my photos, it will show you how I dealt with it. I simply loosened the screw enough so that the Nut and was nearly to the end of the screw. At night I simply lift the lid and push in both screws so that I can close the lid easily. There is no need to screw and unscrew the lid every night. What I don’t like about it, the top of the lid is flat, which means my girls will roost on it. I’ve seen other brands that have a tented top, and I wish they would come out with a top like that to prevent the chickens from roosting and getting it dirty. There is a minimum weight in order to get the lid open, so if you have small bantams , it’s not likely to work for you. Right now my chicks are at the weight of a small bantam and I’m in my training period. I’m pretty confident in a couple of weeks they will be heavy enough to activate it on its own. Another thing that concerns me is now that I have it in training mode, the lid is held up by the screws. Several of my girls have decided to roost on that. If they try to do that with others eating out of the bin once I’m out of training mode, I’m concerned it might snap their neck. Will have to wait and see what happens. I’ll update if there are serious concerns about this issue. All in all I find it really convenient. I can go away for a week with all the feed that it can hold and be pretty confident will have a supply. I feel that the price is aligned with the quality. When you first set it out, its size and shininess are likely to freak out your chicks. I solved this by sprinkling some mealworms on the base plate and on the top of the feed. They were on it in less than five minutes. My chicks were about seven weeks old when I put this out for training. They are medium sized breed. UPDATE: OK, it’s been a full week in the first part of training mode. I’ve had no issues opening and closing the lid with the way I have positioned the screws. I was worried that the nuts might fall off the end, but so far so good. we’ve had massively heavy rain and winds. And I was worried with all of the wind and rain, the feed couldn’t possibly stay dry. But it did. I’m impressed. There is no scratch feed on the ground. The chickens have stopped even trying to scratch it out, which they did the first day. And at least at the moment. If they get out of the coop before I get to open up their feed, they are able to activate the lid opening. Don’t get me wrong, they can’t activate it all the way because I have it locked. But boy did they try. And I see it going up and down. Part of that may because more than one will get on that plate at the same time. I’m also guessing that once I’m in my next stage, and they will be able to partially open and close the feeder they will learn better than to jump on that door. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I still don’t like that they still jump on the lid. But it is what it is. I am shocked that I still haven’t needed to fill it! It’s saving me a ton on feed costs.

Getting the birds used to the feeder is easy, not filling the feeder as often as the other feeder, buying less feed, and it lasts longer.

*****UPDATE***** I now have 13 chickens and have been using this feeder for a long time. The feeder is holding up well despite heavy use. It still prevents rodents from getting to the food, and it keeps the rain out. No rusting so far. I have been able to easily teach the new chickens how to use it (or rather my existing chickens taught the new chickens how to use it). I have 9 chickens and was feeding daily before purchasing this feeder. My chickens would waste a ton of food with my old feeder by scattering it on the ground, and it was attracting rats. Once I purchased this, I haven't had to buy as much food because it has a grate inside that helps prevent the chickens from scattering food everywhere. The food is secure, so rodents can't get to it (they are too light to trigger the feeder to open), which is a plus. My chickens were skeptical of the feeder at first because it does make a little noise when it opens, and they were not used to the moving parts. I followed the provided instructions to get the chickens use to the feeder in phases. First, you use the provided bolts to keep the feeder door propped open for a while. Next, you adjust the bolts so that it allows the feeder door to move a little to get the chickens use to the movement. The final step is to remove the bolts, which allows the feeder door to fully close and just be triggered by chickens stepping on the feeder step. Within a few weeks, my chickens were fully adjusted to the feeder and using it like pros. I have saved so much time and money because of this thing. It is a bit expensive, but in my opinion, worth the investment. It seems like it will last me many years.

I got this for my large ( over 50j flock of chickens. I actually got the large and extra large. The larger one came looking fine. The smaller one is made a little different and looked slightly not right. Like it had been dropped or tweaked somehow. The smaller one worked great for about a month and when I went to check the chickens they acted hungry. The step part had come unbolted from the frame and wouldn’t open for them when they stepped on it. I had used a screw driver and wrench to tighten everything when I put it together so I assume the constant banging of them getting on and off “shook”them loose. I ended up getting a locking nut to keep it locked together. It came with a standard nut, locking washer, and bolt originally. The filler lid top is flat so the chickens will get on top to wait their turn and often get impatient and step down on the lower flat lid often shutting it on the feeding chickens head. No true injuries from this yet I would suggest a slanted feeder lid to try to prevent this. Also the feeder lid has two bolts that go into two holes in the top body of the feeder to keep it closed. They work great but are a pain to try to line up. A hinge or something in the back would make it easier to close and free up your hand to fill the feeder and not have to hold the lid. Right now it is rainy winter weather and the feeder is outside where they free range so it is a muddy mess. I don’t want to sit the lid down in that! I can say the are truly water tight. No wet feed at all. I have noticed a great reduction in my feed usage and now see the mice in different areas since they can’t get free feed anymore. When spring comes we will see what the squirrels think of it. All in all a great product. A little smaller than I expected but they will wait their turn and can use it when they want. I would like to see some changes like I mentioned but it does what it says. Kind of expensive but made in the USA and I hear they stand behind their product. Haven’t tried to contact them so I can’t say.

Pros: sturdy, weatherproof, rat proof Cons: terrified the ducks just being in their space at first, closing mechanism is sudden and loud still making them essentially work up the courage to use it every time, expensive, screws came off after a month of use and now I have to purchase replacements and figure out how to keep them from slipping off

I hesitated to purchase this feeder because it’s expensive and there are so many other alternatives. But let me tell you - it is a game-changer for your flock (and you!) Once I decided I needed to look past the price, I purchased the Large Size for our flock of 12 and was so pleased by all this feeder provides! MORE SECURE FEED STORAGE & DELIVERY LESS WASTE (much less waste!!) LESS WORK FOR ME (holds about 10 days’ worth of food for 12 chickens) MORE interesting way for the chickens to receive their feed - meaning less boredom for the flock LESS tempting to rodents, predators, wild birds, etc - we have seen ZERO of these since converting to this feeder. We had many wild birds helping themselves to the old feeder! MORE value due to exceedingly sturdy metal construction and smoothly working moving parts. To be fair, our chickens were scared of it once we moved to Phase 2 of training on day 3 (lever and lid half open). The movement and sound startled them and I just “knew” they’d never eat from it. The 1st day in Phase 2 I think they ate less because of the movement & I considered moving back to Phase 1 (full-open). BUT the next morning when they were let out, they practically tackled each other to get to the feeder and ate like pros. They did so well we moved to Phase 3 only 2 days later (which is how they’ll eat from now on: lid down until they step on the platform - then the feed is exposed until they step down). The entire “training” took 6 days instead of the 2 weeks suggested!! DO follow the training schedule; but if the birds “get it” sooner, you can move to the next Phase. This product is worth every penny. It saves me so much time with day-to-day chores because it’s always ready! It is soooo WELL BUILT and sturdy. The mechanisms work exactly like it should because they are also well designed and built. Our chickens are happy with full crops and we are happy to have such an efficient and well designed way to feed our flock. Don’t be like me and hesitate due to the price. It’s genuinely worth every penny!

UPDATE: Chickens are still afraid of this and will not use it. I tried (patiently) to train them to use the feeder per the company's suggested method; no success. The construction is nice and it's a great idea if they would use it. I will contact the company to see if they will take it back since I missed the return period trying to make this work for us. Saw this feeder as the answer to keeping my chicken's feed clean, dry, and rodent-free. It's really well made and a good design. The only problem is the chickens are afraid to go over to it. I have the training mode on with the door all the way up so the door doesn't move. I started with hand feeding the chickens treats by it, then after realizing they were not eating from it, started putting the food near the foot pedestal. Now, some of the chickens will reluctantly eat off the foot pedestal, but my Barnaveldar still won't go near it. I am left with hand-feeding her and putting the other chicken's food near the feeder to make sure they eat. Found a couple of mouse droppings in the feeder since I have to leave the lid open in training mode....It's been a couple of weeks now, and I'm still trying to get them to use it, but I don't know if it's going to work for us. Disappointing as I can see it would work well if they would use it. I guess I have "Chicken" chickens. Three stars because although it's made well and the design is good, it's non-functional for us as my chicks are scared of it.

We bought four of the large feeders. They work great. Our chickens learned to use them no problem and the rats are now on a diet. Although the material is weather-proof, if they are hit by rain, the feed does get damp and mushy - so they do need to be under cover. Just a heads-up! We're happy with our purchase. Thank you.

OMG!!! this is brilliant!!! I have had so many other feeders over the years with my girls and none compare to this beauty! It took a few weeks till they are now super confident on the different settings to train them, they were running away from the step as it makes a banging shutting sound which freaks them out after they get off it! that has calmed down now and they have accepted this as the gold class amazing feeder extraordinaire. I am stoked as the pigeon/doves coming in stealing all the food and giving my chooks mites was killing me. Now we have won!!! no wasted food or feeding the local dopey birds. very very happy 🥰 I stuck a bit of placemat over the plate as on hot days it would burn the girls feet. pic of Lilo and May, these two rockstars were the first to figure out how to use this magical feeder!

Perfect. Easily accepted, no spilling.

Arrived dented but doesn’t seem to affect functionality. Smaller than expected but will do our coop just fine. Have not yet tried with chickens. Update: After only a few days training my barnyard mix of heritage breeds was able to eat/operate the feeder. Still as good as new months later.

It's good value for the money and the fat rats don't get to the feed..I have had a cheaper similar feeder and was easy for the rats to eat all the feed. This one is the best and it's weather tight 5stars a grate feeder