SmartStep™ Poultry Feeders
Product Details
Treadle-action poultry feeder reduces feed waste by keeping songbirds and rodents out.
- Stop small rodents and songbirds from eating your feed
- Feed stays dry and protected
- Reduces wasted feed
- Pre-assembled! Simply adjust tension spring to match birds' weight
The chicken’s weight on the roost activates the hinged door allowing access. When the bird leaves, the door closes.
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California Residents: Proposition 65 Information
Benefits
- Stop rats, mice, wild birds and other small pests from eating your poultry feed
- Feed stays dry and protected in most weather conditions
- Side window allows for visual check of feed level. Lid opens toward back of feeder for filling.
- Recessed trough design and lip reduces wasted feed. Birds can’t reach in and scratch out feed.
- Roost is elevated 1.75" above the ground, which allows more manure to fall through, rather than collect and bind operation.
- Treadle can be adjusted for birds’ weight. Choose from 0.5 lbs, 1.10 lbs and 1.65 lbs settings.
Specs
- Feed capacity: 26 lbs
- Size: 11.8"L, 11.8"W, 16.7"H
- Suited for: Adult birds
- Number fed*: 100
- Use inside or outside: Both
- Can it hang? No
* Number Fed is determined by capacity multiplied by 4 oz (amount of feed the average adult chicken eats per day).
How to Use
To train chickens how to use the treadle, put a stone or weight on the footplate. It may be helpful to keep the stone in place for a day or two, this way the birds will discover where the food is.
Tips
- Chickens need to be trained to feeders. Select a trainee and place them on the roost to activate the door. They will see the feed and recognize that this is the place to be fed.
- Allow room under roosts. As manure and bedding accumulates, doors will not be able to open fully. Either hang the feeder or periodically clear bedding and manure. Partially open doors have the potential to scrape the combs of large combed birds.
- Because the feed lands far back in the feeder, we do not recommend its use with waterfowl.
- Use coarsely ground feeds for optimal feed flow in humid conditions (the same with all high capacity feeders). High concentrations of fines (powder) in feed bind easily when moisture is present (stopping feed flow).
Precautions
Periodically check and remove accumulated build-up from underneath the footplate to allow proper operation.
Roosters with large combs may drag their combs on the edges of the door, creating minor cuts. We suggest looking to other style of feeders for your roosters.
Some bantam varieties may not be tall enough to reach feed low in the trough.
Not for use around small chicks. They may become trapped inside the feeder.
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Cane Valley Farm from Kentucky
This is a follow-up to my review from over a year ago (November 2022). Again I hate leaving negative comments on the web, but this product either needs to be majorly upgraded or removed from Premier’s otherwise awesome repertoire of poultry products. This one is a dud for sure and does not live up to the Premier 1 name.
In addition to all my aforementioned issues I can now say the feeder is in the scrap pile. A lot of money wasted. From the get-go I was having issues with the door opening the whole way and resorted to placing a wedge in the opening to prop it open enough for the larger hens to get something to eat. I eventually started noticing a a micro tear in the lid where the lever connects to open it. This got bigger and bigger to the point the door would no longer open. I thought about repairing it but there are so many other design flaws that made it not worth my time. It would take a ground up redesign.
Overall this is a poor design and I do not recommend it. Get some of those elbow feeders that mount in a drilled hole on the side of a bucket or barrel. Way cheaper and more effective in the long run!
Kyle H from Ohio
Metal feed door is splitting apart after 1.5 years of use with 7 chickens. The mechanism to open the door is total junk. Have had issues with the spring since day one and is a total pain to replace.
I have tried to make this feeder work for me. It is junk, spend your money elsewhere.
Sara J from Oregon
After a year with this feeder, we’re giving up and getting a different one. While it did solve the rat issue (and has helped us save on feed), the girls’ heads/necks are losing feathers because they have to stick their heads so far in to access the food and it’s too narrow/doesn’t open enough for them to get their heads out. The spring resistance doesn’t really matter — we have it on the loosest setting and our big chickens still can’t get it to open well enough. The metal flap cracked after it was knocked over by a raccoon. We bought this one due to the large capacity, but overall are disappointed with it.
Bob S from Arizona
Disaster.
Does not open all the way and food is very deep inside well so if you have hen or rooster or a bird with a bigger head they will get stuck when trying to come out.
Screw holes in back if used are not water proof and overall very poor water proofing, even in light rain.
Paddles very springy and at awkward angle making it next to impossible to hold down if trying to acclimate chickens to the use. Further, steps too short and slopped too sharply.
Impossible for smaller chickens like Silkies.
Adjusting spring to change resistance is frustrating.
Chris S from Kentucky
I do not enjoy writing negative reviews but this needs to be made known.
- The top lid is designed in such a way that it will not open when mounted flush against a wall.
- The mounting holes are too close to the top, so when I added wood furring strips to move it out from the wall (#1 above) they too were in the way of the lid when opening. Not a big deal for me to drill new holes but for others it might be.
- The access area for chickens to reach in is narrow and the chickens must reach way down in. After two weeks of propping the automatic lid open, I’m still not convinced my larger birds are able to get enough feed.
- The roost bar mechanism is chinsy and undersized for larger breed hens to comfortably stand on while eating.
- The lever mechanism that is attached to the lid is poorly designed and does not fully open when a chicken is on the roost. This exacerbates the problem of hens not being able to reach the feed.
- Not a complaint but more of a future design consideration... make the top lid angled so chickens won’t perch and poop on it.
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including Lead, which is known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to