I wanted to call this “Squirrel Proof Feeder System” but I knew as soon as I did one of those little scudders would figure it out. So I’m playing it safe. But since this is as close as I have gotten to a squirrel proof feeder system, I thought I would share it with you. It’s been up four years now and so far, so good.
I really enjoy the birds and so I feed them. It keeps them around and the population healthy. Birds are also an essential part of my integrated pest management system in the garden. Birds will take care of more insects in your gardens than anything I know of. They are a precise weapon, too—unlike most sprays. And they’re fun. This past year I grew some dill in one of my beds and every day I enjoyed watching a little male cardinal carefully pick his fill of caterpillars off the plants. Yes, I know they are baby butterflies and I provide for them too but I really appreciated the little red guy’s help.
But feeding birds has always meant that I was feeding squirrels. And they are the greediest little rascals. I have tried everything. The feeder mounted on a pole with a baffle? The raccoons just loved it. Pulled it over every night. Those expensive feeders with the lever bar that is supposed to close the feeder if a squirrel lands on it? No match for my crew. They just hung upside down from the top of the feeder so as to not trigger the lever. So I hung a feeder on a wire in a tree with a baffle on it. Well, they quickly learned to slide down the wire with their back legs and push the baffle down until it was leaning on the wire and then grip the wire on the other side of the baffle with their front legs and slide right on down the wire and past the baffle. I put a fixed baffle over the feeder. They just jumped. Darn those little guys But I found one that so far none of them have figured out. The double baffle system.
I really enjoy the birds and so I feed them. It keeps them around and the population healthy. Birds are also an essential part of my integrated pest management system in the garden. Birds will take care of more insects in your gardens than anything I know of. They are a precise weapon, too—unlike most sprays. And they’re fun. This past year I grew some dill in one of my beds and every day I enjoyed watching a little male cardinal carefully pick his fill of caterpillars off the plants. Yes, I know they are baby butterflies and I provide for them too but I really appreciated the little red guy’s help.
But feeding birds has always meant that I was feeding squirrels. And they are the greediest little rascals. I have tried everything. The feeder mounted on a pole with a baffle? The raccoons just loved it. Pulled it over every night. Those expensive feeders with the lever bar that is supposed to close the feeder if a squirrel lands on it? No match for my crew. They just hung upside down from the top of the feeder so as to not trigger the lever. So I hung a feeder on a wire in a tree with a baffle on it. Well, they quickly learned to slide down the wire with their back legs and push the baffle down until it was leaning on the wire and then grip the wire on the other side of the baffle with their front legs and slide right on down the wire and past the baffle. I put a fixed baffle over the feeder. They just jumped. Darn those little guys But I found one that so far none of them have figured out. The double baffle system.
And here’s how it works. (And I have watched one squirrel after another try to work this out.) The squirrel arrives on the ground and picks up what the messy little birds have thrown over the edge of the feeder. She looks around, looking for the source of the manna from heaven. She sees the feeder. She stands up on her hind legs and you can see her thinking, “Hmm. I need to get to that. I can’t jump that high off the ground and it’s too far from the trunk. I’ll just go at it from above. Yes, that will work. I’ll just climb the tree, slide down that wire and I’ll have all the seed I want.”
She climbs the tree and slides down the wire to the top baffle. That one is stationary so she tests it and learns that it will hold her weight. She climbs down on it and looks over the edge. There’s another one just like it below. She can’t reach the wire under the top baffle, but she says to herself, 
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Here’s how it works. As you can see in the picture, the feeder is suspended from a tree limb on a wire. (The wire on the limb is wrapped in a rubber hose to prevent damage to the limb.) The limb has to be far enough from the trunk and high enough off the ground so that the Flying Wallendas can’t jump to it bypassing the baffles. There are two baffles between the limb and the feeder. The top baffle is about three feet down the wire from the limb. It is held stationary in place with four screws (see picture) so that it doesn’t rock. The bottom baffle is about two feet farther down the wire and it is free swinging on the wire. Then the feeder is just down from that, so that the baffle is just over the feeder.
“They look identical. This one will hold me, so the second one will. I CAN JUMP!”
Ha! You little fool. Fallicy of composition! She takes the leap! She hits the lower baffle. But the second one isn’t stationary. It immediately tips! It dumps her! It’s too close to the feeder for her to catch the feeder on the way down and she lands on the ground in a very satisfying (to me) heap! It’s so fun to watch! It’s not high enough to hurt her and they will try it over and over. “If I leap to the left!” Crash. “If I leap to the right!” Crash. I watched one try it 11 times in a row before she finally decided that, as unfair as the whole thing is to squirrels, all she was going to get was bruised dignity! Try it. Let me know if you get one smart enough to figure it out! P.S. It’s also raccoon proof because they are too big to slide down the wire! |