Friday, April 28, 2017

Back Yard Update

There have been a lot of visitors to our back yard.  Birds of all sizes, from large Crows to beautiful Painted Buntings-and of course squirrels and rabbits.  If you have been a reader of my blog for awhile, you know I have had trouble with squirrels emptying the feeder and I would have to refill it two or three times a day.  At the end of the day, it was always empty.

I was buying 50 to a 100 pounds of bird feed every couple of weeks.  Tractor Supply was getting rich, I was getting poor, and the squirrels were getting fat and sassy.  My wife found a suggestion in a book that sounded like it would work.  Run the support pole through an empty plastic container and place it half way up the pole, high enough to prevent the squirrels from jumping from the ground to the pole above the container.

I couldn't do that since my pole divided into two prongs that stuck in the ground.  So, I just split the jug up the side and cut an "X" at the end of the slit at the bottom.  I slipped the pole into the side of the jug and made sure where it exited the bottom that it was in my "X" cut.  I then tightly taped the jug closed around the pole.  Guess what?  It works!!!  The last fifty pound bag I bought will now probably last me a month or more or longer.  Sorry Tractor Supply.  I will still put some seed on the ground for the rabbits, and the squirrels can eat that, too.

This first picture shows all the feeders, the plastic jug, and the squirrels on the ground:
 

This next one is taken out of the kitchen window.  My wife's succulent plants sit on the inside window sill:

This last picture is about the same except for the cardinal on the feeder:

Well, I guess this blog posting was for the birds, as they say.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

15 comments:

  1. I sure wish I had know about the plastic jug trick when I lived in NC. The squirrels always won every battle!

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    1. It would have saved you a lot of bird feed expense.

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  2. Pretty nifty idea! I like it...!

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    1. It works very well. Yep, my wife found a nifty and cheap fix.

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  3. Now that is a great idea! Little rascals are a problem in some places.

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  4. Replies
    1. I don't want to kill them. The BB gun gets them running the other direction.

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  5. I saw a Slinky someone put on their bird feeder pole, you remember those long spring things kids played with, squirrel goes up, squirrel grabs Slinky, squirrel goes back down. That's entertainment.

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    1. Yes, I have seen that but it would be hard to get a slinky on it, so the jug was the easiest.

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  6. I saw a Slinky someone put on their bird feeder pole, you remember those long spring things kids played with, squirrel goes up, squirrel grabs Slinky, squirrel goes back down. That's entertainment.

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  7. I like that plastic jug idea on the pole. Looks simple enough even for me to try.

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  8. i use "squirrel baffles" that I buy in the store/online. Also an old dishpan works. Your jugs seem to be doing the trick, so that is a new idea for me to use. Thanks.

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    1. I figured that the squirrels would find a way to bet past it, but so far, they haven't.

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