Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding

Hey all thought I would share this video from Saturday. I have had a feeder now up for about a month. It's a Remington deer feeder its doing pretty good too. It has AM 500 and 600 food in it and the timer is set to 1 second. I was feeding 1 sec. in the morning and 1 in the evening, but I since added an 11 o'clock feeding as well now that they have found the food. The feeding hasn't been that great really, but was I in for a surprise this morning. My HSB also found the feeder! The video is a little shaky sorry about that, but it's the best feeding I have had so far I was pretty excited!! So for a 1 acre pond that has never had food in it, it has taken about 3 weeks to a month for them to really get on it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDcBjwAGjyQ&feature=channel&list=UL

Looks good to me.

1. Awesome idea of installing the deer feeder in the pond proper. They are less expensive and it's an option I never considered until I read about Nate doing it and seeing you actually do it. Great idea.

2. Looks as though your HSB have found the feeder! You'll be increasing feeding times as they grow I'll bet pretty soon. Congrats.

3. Your camera work left me feeling like a recent flight I had...you must have taken a few shots of expresso before shooting the feeding?

Great job and thanks for sharing the video! You've inspired me to share one, too.

Hey TJ that's funny! I was using my phone and I was zoomed in so any little movement you could tell!! Oh and I was on my 3rd cup of Joe!!

Hey TJ, Yeah the deer feeder is working better than I thought it would. I just superglued a plastic plate on the back side so the feed won't go backwards. I set it to 1 sec. on hi. It slings it pretty darn good! Yes I did confirm that some of those fish were my HSB as I did go over there and catch one of them and backed out. It was a nice 10 inch HSB. So it's game on now!! And now I am getting my feed for 30 bucks a 50 pound bag so I am pretty happy about it all. Thanks to everyone who advised me in this and what to do. I was not sure at first if I was going to mess with it, but I am SURE GLAD I DID!!!!

I think you need to bump up the time.. Maybe 3 seconds 3xs a day or 5 seconds twice a day..

Hey BK I did not bump the time up but I did add a 3rd feed time. I was thinking myself as much as they are hitting it now I may have to at least up my morning feed time to 2 seconds and go from there.

thanks for the advice,

Hey, RC, tell me more about the plate you glued on. How did you fashion it? What part did you glue it to on the feeder? What did you use for the plate? Was it literally a plastic (eating) plate, or was a piece of plastic that you fashioned into a plate? I bought a small inexpensive Moultrie directional feeder last year and attached it to an 8 gallon bucket. It has never worked really well because the feed doesn't seem to be willing to drop readily down through the chute and the little impeller that is in the chute. I am thinking now of going a different route with a regular 360 degree feeder with a guard like you fashioned. Just don't yet have it in me to buy a $700 Texas Hunter!

Hey Todd,

I will try to explain this as best I can. I tried this for the same reason you just said I couldn't afford a TH either! This is a Remington deer feeder from Walmart 85 bucks. The deer feeder I am using as you can see in the video has a seperate motor box below the food container. Well on the back side I measured the width of the box I think it was 5.5 inches wide. I took a flat plastic lid from a tupperware container one that was fairly sturdy.(The wife hasn't missed it yet !!) I took my chop saw and cut off all the edges of the lid and used the middle of the lid. I then took and cut it down to the size I needed after that. I needed a 5.5 inch wide by about 2 to 2.5 inch high back plate. Well with it being plastic it glues real well with superglue. So on this particular feeder on the back you can lower a door where your timer is and battery. Well just above that where the door comes down is about a 1/4 inch flat part of the frame of the box. I put a nice thick line of glue on that and then just stuck my piece of plastic on there and in 30 seconds there you go. It was stuck big time. I have not had any issues with it so far and its been on there for a month now. I think 2.5 inches high works good. It doesn't take much to keep that food from going backwards. I hope that makes some sence!! It's working great and I can put 100 pounds of food in that feeder and depending on your settings it will last you quite a while!

This is a great thread. I've almost been embarrassed to put up what I've done, but it works great. And, it is pretty inexpensive.

I bought one of the Moultry bucket directional feeder kits -- the one with the motor, the horizontal directional feed dispenser, and a timer. No feed container or battery included. I think I got the kit for either$29;95 or $39.95 from one of the big box sporting goods stores. I bought a feeder battery for about another $10.

For the feed container, I bought a see-thru 3-gallon blue-tinted bucket, with snap-on weatherproof cover, from one of the big box hardware stores. I think it was $3.99. I wanted a 5-gallon bucket, but I couldn't see through any of larger buckets to determine how much feed was still in the bucket. This all worked great for a few weeks, until we had major spring storms last year while we were at the Pond Boss conference. We apparently were on the edge of at least one tornado. I found my feeder a few days later, in about three feet of water, on the other side of the pond.

After a thorough cleaning and drying, the feeder motor still worked. The sealed battery was still OK. The timer was fried/molded/dead. I found a replacement feeder timer for about $40 -- and it has been fantastic. It is better than the original. It knows a 6 volt from a 12 volt battery. Everything is pretty happy.

So, to finally get to the point -- each year it takes my fish a while to figure out that floating pellets are a pretty good treat. It also has a lot to do with temperature.

A feed ring near your feeder, or where you feed, will give you a pretty good idea of how much the fish are eating. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow to show what I've done. When my feeder goes off, about 80%-90% of the feed goes into the floating feed ring. I'm doing something similar with a catfish cage.

Right now, I'm feeding four times a day with the main feeder. One second at 7:30 AM. One second at 12:00 noon. Three seconds at 6:00 PM, and another one second at 7:30 PM (for the catfish). I'm fortunate right now to be home to see what is happening. Earlier in the week it was all being eaten pretty fast. With our crazy 85 degree weather turning to blizzard conditions, a minimal amount of food got eaten today.

Anyway, to condense my long story to one thought -- if you can watch your fish, you can quickly determine when they eat the most, and how much to feed each time. Each season, by late-May, I usually get down to a medium sized feeding about 30 minutes after sunrise, and then two small feedings in the late afternoon / early evening. It is mostly bluegill in the morning, along with a few silly LMB, and even some crappie. The first evening feeding again includes the bluegill, the same few silly LMB, and the same few big crappie. The second evening feeding starts with HSB, more of the LMB, and then catfish come in and scare everything else away. They suck up everything on the pond top.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Ken

I have noticed a similar trend to what Ken explained with the feeder at our new pond. At first, its BG and they just attack the feed for about the first 5 minutes or so. Then come in the CC and they clean up the rest. Some BG activity is still going on but it is much less than at the beginning.

Hey Cat very nice thanks for the info! I even thought about trying one of those feeders but I had the deer feeder in my back yard already so thought I would give it a try. The nice thing about the deer feeder is once you fill it up it's pretty darn heavy and it's not going to go to far even with strong winds. As heavy as that thing is full I would have to say it would take a pretty darn strong wind gust to knock it over.

I am starting to figure some of this feeding time stuff out. I am brand new to all of this so knowing your feed times do help. As I am not really sure how to proceed with that, just kind of playing it by ear, and of course by what you fine people here tell me.

thx,

Listen to the fish. If they eat all the food in 15 seconds after the feeder stops, feed 'em more.

If I can get home in time, I'll try to get a video of the RBT and LMB in the pond eating....

I will try to get a video of our fish eating this weekend when I am home too.

Scott, I think we should measure feeding time by $/second rather than lbs/second?

There is a lot to feeding concepts and results. Goals are the place to start.

Sometimes goals and concepts collide with the harsh reality of economics.. .

Yeah I heard that! I am getting my food at a pretty good price though. So I am set for now food wise. I just don't want to over feed and mess up my pond with the food. Those HSB are starting to eat now too so if they all kick in I suppose I will have to go up on my times. I saw 100 or so BG around 3 to 4 inches all over in that shore line too. Plus I know I have some bigger BG and RES eating also. I will be there again this weekend and see how that morning feed goes. I may turn that one up a notch if they are really going at it still. I am proceding with caution!! That's one thing I have learned for sure!

Just by watching the video I'd say you could easily double your feeding times if you can afford it..

Hey BK thanks for the info. I am running only 1 second at this point and I figured I could at least go to 2 seconds on the morning feed. Which I will be changing on Saturday morning after they feed and we can watch it one more time. Do you all feed during the hot summertime? What do you all do when it's 104 outside? 1 feeding in the early morning or what?

thanks,

Early morning and late evening

RC,
Nothing cooler than watching your own fish feed! It is rather addicting!!

No video today. Left before sunrise, and got home a couple hours after sunset.

Hey RC51 can we get a picture of the setup if possible? I have same feeder and another thing do you have a funnel in the inside or just flat bottom. I was thinking of setting one at the end of the pier. Wife bought it 3 years ago for Christmas and its been setting in the basement. I think battery is dead but I assume it will charge back up.

I'm glad to know that others enjoy watching there fish feed. I can sit and watch the pond for hours. It is addicting!