Light-activated game feeders

[Too Deer]

Evening all,

I am looking to get my hands on a light-activated, automatic feeder to feed a duck flighting pond. Google tells me that there are several companies offering feeders that run on a timer but they don't really suit the requirement.

I'd appreciate any advice on where I might be able to lay my hands on one as while I could make my own, I really don't fancy it at the mo!

James

 

[Pedro]

Haven't heard of one. I guess you mean one that throws feed out as it gets dark? Sounds like a good idea though.

 

[Too Deer]

Haven't heard of one. I guess you mean one that throws feed out as it gets dark? Sounds like a good idea though.

That's exactly what I'm after!

 

[Pedro]

I fear you may be reduced to having to make one, or adapting a timer one. The likes of Solway Feeders sell them.

 

[Tim.243]

I fear you may be reduced to having to make one, or adapting a timer one. The likes of Solway Feeders sell them.

The camping 12v solar chargers might be some were to start, not that i am any way a sparks man, well only with the grinder lol

I have an auto feeder on the pheasants which was used for the ducks. I had to put a wire mesh ring around it as the ducks learnt to whack the spinner and emptied it in a few days lol...

Personally I would use a timed auto feeder and set it for first light that week and just add or take off the few mins week by week as you have to fill it up....!!




Tim.243

 

[User00003]

whatever happened to chucking some barley, old bread, and boiled tatties out on the bankside once or twice a week?.....

 

[Pedro]

whatever happened to chucking some barley, old bread, and boiled tatties out on the bankside once or twice a week?.....

Best method. But if you live a few miles away and have a thumping great pickup or Land Rover or some other guzzler, all of a sudden those few duck become overly expensive and you wonder if you'd be better off paying to shoot grouse!

 

[Too Deer]

Best method. But if you live a few miles away and have a thumping great pickup or Land Rover or some other guzzler, all of a sudden those few duck become overly expensive and you wonder if you'd be better off paying to shoot grouse!

Exactly why I want something to do it for me!

 

[Too Deer]

The camping 12v solar chargers might be some were to start, not that i am any way a sparks man, well only with the grinder lol

I have an auto feeder on the pheasants which was used for the ducks. I had to put a wire mesh ring around it as the ducks learnt to whack the spinner and emptied it in a few days lol...

Personally I would use a timed auto feeder and set it for first light that week and just add or take off the few mins week by week as you have to fill it up....!!




Tim.243

Thanks Tim.

I'm happy with the electronics needed to make such a thing, I just don't really have the time at the mo...... although it looks increasingly like I may have to find the time!

 

[CarlW]

Thanks Tim.

I'm happy with the electronics needed to make such a thing, I just don't really have the time at the mo...... although it looks increasingly like I may have to find the time!

Just buy a timed one and then substitute a photocell switching circuit in place of the timer switching circuit. That way, all the 'hardware' will already be done, leaving you just to do a bit of soldering at the most.

Kind regards,

Carl

 

[JTO]

Just buy a timed one and then substitute a photocell switching circuit in place of the timer switching circuit. That way, all the 'hardware' will already be done, leaving you just to do a bit of soldering at the most.

Kind regards,

Carl

I've just fitted up some lights that come on as it gets dark, and are powered by a small solar panel. I'm sure they could be used to liven up a feeder, with a relay. I got them from Lidl some time ago.

 

[Too Deer]

I've just fitted up some lights that come on as it gets dark, and are powered by a small solar panel. I'm sure they could be used to liven up a feeder, with a relay. I got them from Lidl some time ago.

Carl, JTO,

Thanks for the suggestions. They may just make it a simple enough project to knock up in an evening!

 

[levigsp]

Evening all,

I am looking to get my hands on a light-activated, automatic feeder to feed a duck flighting pond. Google tells me that there are several companies offering feeders that run on a timer but they don't really suit the requirement.

I'd appreciate any advice on where I might be able to lay my hands on one as while I could make my own, I really don't fancy it at the mo!

James

Hi just a question, why don't you do what most people do, me included and set a standard feeder to go off half hour or so before dark or whatever timing you require?

 

[JTO]

Although it's fairly important not to be feeding things that eat in daylight, and sunset varies by 10-15 minutes per week for most of the duck season, the most important part of managing a flight pond is to drive the duck off every morning. If you live some way away, it can become expensive in time and fuel, as has already been pointed out.

 

[Tim.243]

Personally I would use a timed auto feeder and set it for first light that week and just add or take off the few mins week by week as you have to fill it up....!!

Said that in post #5 >

Tim.243

 

[JTO]

Personally I would use a timed auto feeder and set it for first light that week and just add or take off the few mins week by week as you have to fill it up....!!

I think you meant 'last' light.

 

[levigsp]

So here is my take on it and I've fed pond electronically for a lot of years.
You need the feed going in in the eve not the morning to encourage the ducks to arrive as its going dark and not have all the vermin eating your barley.
The reason you set it to go off a good half hour before dusk, is so the birds arrive before dark, so you can see to shoot them.
If the feeder is set off by the light going, it will frighten away any ducks already there! and they will come back in the dark-Ive had first hand experience of this.
Then we come to the distance thing, some of my ponds are 30 miles away, Im not going to visit everyday either! but you have to visit once a week at least, for even a 45gallon drum feeder of barley wont last much more than that [if you have any ducks]so when you top it up you change the time again, 30 seconds of your time! simple.

 

[Tim.243]

I think you meant 'last' light.

Last is first lol....
What I find is how the tide/wind/moon affect how birds come as a lot of birds come in the marsh to drink on the low tide from the fresh water runs out of the sluices.....
If we get any proper weather then the ponds are next to useless being frozen over very quickly. Ducks need a drink also will feed what you give them...There is a spring fed pond where I stalk last time 400 + wigeon came in to drink then feed on the grass with 200 geese...

Tim.243

 

[JTO]

The lights that I just set up, came on with plenty of time to spare for duck to arrive, from local experience. Facing the sensor East might mean they came on a little earlier, perhaps.
The more often you visit in the morning, the quicker the duck numbers will build up, and the more often you can shoot the pond. Don't wait for mega large numbers, they seem to get fed up after a few days and try somewhere else. This seems to apply to local Mallard if Teal turn up and start squabbling amongst themselves. If you can count ducks in each evening, once there are about 20 turning up, the next night you will get enough to be able to shoot 20. You might be able to do that once a week.

 

[enfieldspares]

I had one about thirty years ago now that came from Tim Hannam now Hannam's Reloading. Actually for feeding deer. It was a plastic box that housed the motor, the light cell, the grain rotor and the battery all in one. You screwed it to a suitably modified fed drump. It used one of the 6 volt batteries that is about the size of a third of a brick, but no ability to solar trickle charge the battery. And at that time those 6 volt batteries were not that frost resilient.

The vermin problems as noted by others were always a factor and light activated or not these things still need the same care with "squirrel proofing" as any other conventioal feeder where the drum is a plastic drum.

In truth as there was not trickle charge facility and with the ever present nights and days when the temperature was below zero the thing virtually ate batteries and I stopped using it. As it was sited on an island in the middle of my pond and to keep it full and replace the batteries was a row boat job.

So my input would be look for a feeder where the battery is topped up by a solar panel and where there is some degree of frost protection for the battery. I think that some of the off the shelf ready USA feeders aren't resilient enough for continued use in freezing weather.