The squirrels are defeated from the bird feeder using a low impedance electric fence energizer and electric fence wire. The energizer is sized for small garden animals. NEVER connect directly to household current as this can be fatal to both animals and people. Also see the short version of the video • Squirrel Wars2 (short ... Copyright 2012 Tom Schendel
Notes about building this feeder.
A tall pole and baffle are a more effective choice for keeping squirls off a feeder. Unfortunately for us, anywhere that I could put a feeder with a baffle 6’ up and clear for 10 around would be difficult to see from our house.
To build the feeder, I picked up a small electric fence energizer and electric fence wire from a local Farm store. Note the fence energizer works by touching the energized wire and ground. On my feeder I ran a second wire on the feeder connected to a grounded rod to complete the circuit.
You need to run two wires to and around the feeder. One wire will come from the electric fence energizer. The other will act as a ground wire. The energized wire and ground need to stay far enough apart that a bird will not touch both wires, but close enough that a squirrel will contact both. On my feeder I started with one side of the feed tray being energized and the other is grounded. I thought that after one shock a squirl would never come back. But squirls are very smart and determined. They would sit and study the feeder and try again knowing what not to do again. And some would figure out just where to sit and step to get past the wires and eat from the feeder. Then I would make changes to wire layout to make it harder to bypass. I’m not sure I was ever completely successful keeping the squirls off but making sure the birds would not be shocked.
I would not mind feeding the squirrels because they are somewhat fun to watch. It’s also not the cost of the feed, it is the fact that they would empty the entire contents of the feeder on to the ground in a day to get to the few nuts or seeds that they wanted wasting 90% of the food and making a huge mess.
28 сен 2024
