For something a little different---I like to have a hanging birdfeeder outside in the wintertime. Last year no matter what I tried, the squirrels always defeated me and ultimately got to the hanging ball of birdseed and eat it all. The squirrels I have are major league aerialists!!! I had purchased one of those acrilique half domes that mount on a pole planted in the ground to keep squirrels from climbing the pole and tried putting it on the suspended ball of birdseed, attached to the wire. The squirrel would run out the tree limb, jump down onto the half "ball", hook his hind feet in the knot at the top of the ball, hang down over the edge and swing back and forth until he was able to grab the ball of birdseed. This year I have glued two balls together. The top "eye" will attach to the tree limb with a wire. The birdseed ball will hang from the aluminum fixture at the bottom. I have waxed and polished the outside of the acrilique balls. We'll see what happens---
The Anti-Squirrel Ball---
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Amazing what those squirrels will do!! Remember a few years ago, had a problem , so tied the feeder onto my clothesline, reeled it out, worked good . However shortly after that i watched a squirrel climb the wall of the corner of my woodshed that was closest to the clothesline, climbed up to the edge of the roof, and tried to jump the distance.
CRASH, down into the snow!! Over and over it tried this each time comming within 24 inches of the feeder, every time, crash down into the snow!! He/She finally gave up exhausted, it was hilarious to watch.
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sorry Brian, that should take a few minutes at most for a squirrel to crack. I once built an anti-squirrel bird feeder by hanging a rope between the porch and a tree and hanging it on a length of rope from that. All bits of rope had short greased lengths of PVC pipe. No effect at all. I then put small squares of perspex at intervals between sections of pipe. No effect, they just jumped over them. I then cut really large sections of perspex and alternated them with the smaller squares. This posed a bit more of a challenge, but not much. They just jumped over the first big square then launched themselves from the rope to the feeder before the next big square. It was only when I put a large square over the top of the bird feeder that they couldn't get to it. They still tried though (often with another squirrel watching and taking notes) and occasionally one would hit the square on top of the feeder and slide off. Completely hilarious to watch, but after a while the sun reflecting off the perspex into the living room bugged us too much and we took it down. The kids loved the battle of Dad vs. The Squirrels.
let us know how you get on! With pics if possible (I think I have a video of me laughing uncontrollably somewhere that might have a squirrel in it)..
Merry Christmas!
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I bought my mother this thing for Christmas one year. It has been quite the entertainment piece and has been going great for around 4 years now.
Andy
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Squirrel proofing a feeder.
The most effective way to stop squirrels from raiding a feeder is with a five gallon bucket. You trim the reinforcement rings off the bucket just below the rings, drill a hole in the bottom of the bucket the size of your post, rope, or cable, and than place a clamp or knot under the bucket.
I have 1-1/2" EMT conduit for posts on my bird feeders, I was having fits with a fox squirrel raiding the feeders. I had a couple of old five gallon buckets laying around that had busted bottoms. I fixed the bottoms with a couple of scrap pieces of aluminum plate. I than cut holes to fit the post in the bottom, trimmed the ridges off and hung them the post by placing a couple of Ideal worm drive clamps on the post. I than placed the bucket on the post with the top pointing towards the ground.
I filled the feeders and the waited for the entertainment to start. The first squirrel ran up the post at full speed, and thunked into the bottom of the bucket, he hit the ground flew up the post again repeating the performance several times until he slowly climbed up the post and then tried gripping the edge of the bucket and fell to the ground. It was great entertainment while it lasted.
I will take a few pictures in the morning.
Dan.
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Andy, I had a good laugh at that Yankee Flipper Squirrel Proof Birdfeeder, And then I looked it up on Amazon.com and about fainted at the $119 price tag. But at the price of bird seed these days, it still might be a good thing._____________________________________________
I would rather have tools that I never use, than not have a tool I need.
Oregon Coast
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While not quite as elegant a solution, none the less this one is entertaining.
Sole proprietor of Acme Buggy Whips Ltd.
Specialty products for beating dead horses.
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As evidenced by the video where the squirrel hangs on for 7 or 8 minutes, and the comment is made 'no wonder my battery dies', the feeder has at least two problems. The first is the motor is not fast enough to spin off every squirrel. It needs more power! Secondly, the squirrel seems to have learned that if it is able to grab both sides of the ring, the motor stops, allowing it to feed. The ring apparently is triggered by tilting the ring, but not by weight only. The switch needs improvement. If a cylinder extended down from the ring so that the squirrel couldn't grab both sides of the ring and balance it's weight, this could be avoided. Squirrels are cuite until they eat through your house and live in the attic. John
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