Grandpa's Feeders Automatic Chicken Feeder, 20 lb

This site has spent most of a year measuring manufacturer claims and finding them inflated, usually by a factor of two and occasionally by more. So it is worth stating clearly when one does not: Grandpa's publishes a figure that checks out with room to spare.

The claim, checked

Two caveats keep this honest. The arithmetic is an average - birds eat more in cold weather and less in heat, and a flock of heavy breeds eats more than a flock of bantams. And any feed spilled or billed out of the trough comes off that headroom.

Even so, it is the right direction of error. A claim with slack in it is a claim you can plan around, which is not something we get to write often.

What the treadle actually does

The lid is closed unless a bird is standing on the step. That single behavior is the reason to buy a treadle feeder, and it addresses the biggest single draw a coop offers a rat colony.

University of Minnesota Extension links backyard rodent problems to cleanliness and names removing wet feed specifically; an open trough of layer pellets sitting out overnight is the opposite of that. A feeder that closes when the flock goes to roost removes the reason rats came - see rats in the chicken coop for the rest of that argument.

It shuts out wild birds during the day too, which matters beyond the cost of the feed. Wild birds at a feeder are a disease vector into a backyard flock, and they are not something a port feeder excludes.

Feed waste: the anti-flick grill

The second mechanism is quieter and saves money every day. A grill sits in the trough to stop birds raking feed sideways onto the ground - billing out, which is where most feed waste actually goes.

Penn State Extension's advice for a conventional trough is to fill it only one-third to one-half full to limit wastage, which caps the usable capacity of an open feeder well below its rating. An enclosed feeder with a grill sidesteps that trade: the feed is held behind a barrier rather than sitting exposed where it can be flicked out. Chicken feeders works through the three named causes of waste.

Side guards are the third detail, and they are not decorative. Birds feeding from the side get pecked by the bird already there, and side access is how feed gets scattered as well as how disputes start.

The training period is real

Nothing about a treadle feeder is obvious to a chicken. Birds have to learn that standing on a step opens a lid, and they learn it by accident and then by imitation.

1. Prop the lid open for the first several days so the feed is visible and the step is just somewhere to stand.
2. Lower it gradually rather than all at once. A lid that suddenly stops opening is a feeder the flock abandons.
3. Leave the old feeder running alongside until you have watched every bird work the treadle. A bird that quietly stops eating is not something you want to discover late.
4. Expect a week, and be prepared for one stubborn bird to take longer.

Who should buy it

• Anyone who already has rats. This is the purchase that removes the reason they are there, and nothing else on the site does that as directly.
• Anyone tired of refilling. Ten days of feed for six birds is a genuinely different rhythm from a daily top-up.
• Keepers whose feed bill has crept up without the flock growing - billing out is usually where it went.
• Anyone leaving the flock for a few days with a neighbor checking water only.

Who should not

• Flocks of mostly bantams or young pullets, unless you can confirm they will trigger it.
• Anyone with a tight coop floor. A treadle feeder is a real object and it sits on the floor this site spends most of its time defending.
• Anyone buying on price. This is comfortably the most expensive feeder format, and a port feeder controls waste and weather for much less - it just stays open all night.
• Anyone who wants it working today. The training period is not optional.

The full write-up

Top pick · Rodents, and a claim that survives checking

Grandpa's Feeders Automatic Chicken Feeder, 20 lbs Treadle

The benchmark treadle feeder, and the rare product on this site whose published bird-count claim is conservative rather than inflated.

What the numbers say

The manufacturer does not publish the dimensions this calculation needs, so we do not print a number.

Figures from Grandpa's Feeders published specifications (Amazon listing) · 17"L x 15"W x 12"H, 20 lb capacity · Galvanized steel

The listing claims it feeds 6 chickens for up to 10 days. Run that against the published feed figure - roughly 0.25 pounds per laying hen per day - and six birds for ten days is 15 pounds against a 20 pound capacity. The claim is not only plausible, it leaves headroom. We almost never get to write that sentence.

The lid only opens when a bird stands on the treadle, which is the entire rodent argument. Feed left in an open trough overnight is a standing invitation, and University of Minnesota Extension names house mice and Norway rats as the specific problem.

An anti-flick grill sits in the trough to stop birds raking feed onto the ground. Billing out is where most feed waste actually goes, and a grill addresses it directly rather than by exhortation.

Side guards stop birds feeding from the sides. That sounds like a detail and is not - side access is how birds get pecked at a feeder and how feed gets scattered.

Good

• Published claim of 6 chickens for 10 days checks out against the feed arithmetic
• Lid closes when no bird is standing on it - rodents and wild birds shut out
• Anti-flick grill addresses billing out, the main source of waste
• Galvanized steel, and a brand that has been doing this for decades

Not so good

• Comfortably the most expensive feeder here
• Birds must be trained to the treadle, which takes days and patience
• Light birds and bantams may not weigh enough to trigger it
• One trough means one feeding station, not the 3 inches per bird a trough figure assumes

Skip this if: your flock is mostly bantams or young pullets. A treadle needs a bird heavy enough to work it, and a feeder your smallest birds cannot open is a feeder that starves the bottom of the pecking order.

$219.95 - View on Amazon

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The alternatives

Chicken feeders compares this against a treadle with an adjustable step weight, port feeders with and without closable covers, and a DIY port kit - on waste, rodents and the published 3 inches of feeder space per bird.