Our chickens outgrew their chick feeder – we have had to refill it daily, and that is too often. Since we needed something bigger, and something that could stay outdoors, I started looking around for ideas.
I found some plans for a treadle feeder and there are many videos of the thing in action.
I didn’t want to build it out of wood only to have it rot away, so I took a stab at building it out of sheet metal. I made plenty of mistakes, but the result looks pretty good for my first sheet metal project. More importantly, the mechanism seems to work fine. With a 6 ounce counterweight in the lid, it takes 1.75 pounds on the treadle to open it.
I added some grip tape to the treadle after fine-tuning the mechanism, so the ladies can maintain their footing… To help train them in on it, I’ve got a trusty, rusty piece of iron holding the door open. Later, I will partially prop the door open, but make them step on the treadle to open it the rest of the way.
