After moving the Grandpa’s Feeder into position two, we were having trouble determining if all the chickens were now eating in the new configuration. My eldest had the brilliant idea of setting up our trail cam to watch the feeder! Since all our chickens have leg bands, I set the camera up at leg band level, so we could see who was able to get food.

I am happy to report that after reviewing the pictures (by the way, we had to sift through over 1,000 pictures a day; those are active chickens!) all the chickens are eating from the feeder! And three chickens are able to open the feeder: Cloud, Cockatrice, and Taco. Apparently the rest wait until it is open, then go muscle in. At least they are eating.

I was concerned because my Grandpa’s Feeder wasn’t gravity feeding the way it should. Every time I checked the food level, I had to push some down into the tray. Turns out the bricks I laid down were not level (you can’t tell in the pictures, because the camera is crooked). So I pulled up the bricks, laid another layer of sand down (I did use sand the first time, but then added additional bricks, so the whole bricked area didn’t have sand), and then relaid the bricks. The gravity feed works much better now!

Just in case, since I reset the bricks and the treadle was at a different level, we are keeping the week 2 configuration with the partially open lid for a few more days, just to make sure the chickens can eat.