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bird feeders
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Posted by alyrics 5B NE OH (My Page) on Wed, May 25, 05 at 22:23
| I'm at my wits end. We have marauding raccoons that dump all the seed out of every feeder I've got. We have pole and hanging feeders. I've tried axle grease on the poles, and an expensive raccoon baffle on the poles. They just climb over it. They even somehow climbed out a wobbly metal hanger to tear out the ports to my hummingbird feeder and dump the sugar water on the ground.
What do you use to beat the beasts? I really like feeding my birds but we have had 25 cases of reported rabies in our county this year and its not worth attracting raccoons into the yard - we live with 50 acres of woods around us.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: bird feeders
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| alyrics, I assume that the raccoons are getting to your feeders during the night, right? If so, bring the feeders in at night, put them back out in the morning. I know it's a pain, but worth it. My parents live in bear country and have to do the same thing. Other suggestions - get a big dog, put electric fence around your yard, play a radio all the time - I don't know if this works but my neighbor swears it keeps the raccoons away from his garden. Good luck. Ann |
RE: bird feeders
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| Bears ! now I feel better! My pole feeders are screwed down tight - they don't come off. The last straw was a Yankee whatever feeder that I'd craftily hidden on the front porch and was bringing in every night. Was just sitting reading Gardenweb when I heard the noise and realized I'd forgotten to bring it in. All the seed dumped and some damage to the feeder. Good thoughts but I don't think they will work for me. Although I have mentioned to my husband several times the solution to this is to electrify the poles - just don't know if they would short out when wet or how that would work. |
RE: bird feeders
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| What kind of a raccoon baffle do you have? I have the 3' long tube type, and they work just fine on the coons - but not on the squirrels, some of which are able to run up the pole and jump around it. Not most, but some Olympic caliber ones can. I have found that the small diameter circular baffles don't work worth beans. It may be that some of your damage is squirrels very early in the morning - they are better at getting around baffles than the raccoons. If you don't have the tube type baffle on your poles, consider getting it. Greasing the poles is potentially very dangerous to the birds if their feathers get fouled. Representative link to baffle below; this is not where I got mine from, just an example so you can see a picture. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Raccoon baffle
RE: bird feeders
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| The other possibility is to cut WAY back on the amount of food you put in the feeders. Only put in as much as the birds will eat in one day so that they are empty by nightfall. |
RE: bird feeders
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| Taking down the feeders is the most effective solution, especially since from an ecological point of view feeders are pretty worthless. |
RE: bird feeders - baffles
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| Jillmcm - that is exactly the kind of baffle I have - except that I bought it locally and paid $60. The chipmunks run up through the middle of it and climb onto the feeders and empty them, the squirrels somehow seem to defeat it and so do the coons - I've run them off when sitting on top of the feeder and scraping the seed out and eating it by the handful. And Elaine - how I would love to have such a yard that bird feeders weren't necessary but Rome wasn't built in a day and my various shrubs and trees aren't enough. I like looking at pileateds in the afternoon and bluebirds and goldfinches in the morning. I'm still thinking about electricity.! |
RE: bird feeders
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| Are the raccooons able to climb a tree, fence, any sort of structure and them plop down on the feeders spilling the seed and even the feeder itself onto the ground? Sometimes placement is the key. I have such trouble with squirrels that I have had to place my feeders just hairs length further than they can jump from any structure in my yard. |
RE: bird feeders
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| Dakster may be right that the squirrels are able to jump to the feeder either from something above it or to the side - is your pole located at least 10' from basically everything? And I'm surprised that the chippies can get through - the one I have has a mounting plate so that there's no room to go up the pole (mine's on a 4x4, maybe the round pole ones are different). And like I said, there are a couple of Olympic caliber squirrels that are able to get a running jump up the pole and just make it onto a feeder by their fingernails, the little buggers. Basically, if you give the squirrels a feeder of their own with BOSS and corn, and make your regular bird feeders a real pain to get onto, the squirrels will tend to leave them alone. That's what I have done. And I have also started putting less seed out, so that the feeders are empty overnight to keep the raccoons from being interested. If you want to go with electricty, but not of the fence kind, there are those feeders that spin the squirrels off - Yankee Flipper (and Dipper and Tipper and something else, too). Expensive, but they might be worth it. |
RE: bird feeders
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| Another option is to leave the feeders empty for a few days. Racoons tend to travel the same pattern every night, if they stop by your house a few times and do not get anything to eat, they will take you off their circuit. You may need to repeat this at various times of the year, but it seemed to work for me. |
RE: bird feeders
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| Hi, I have not had problems with Raccoons and I realize that is a more difficult problem, but I did almost stop feeding the birds last year because of the squirrels. I found two solutions that have worked great. One is that I discovered that squirrels HATE safflower seed. I fill a number of feeders now with only that and they turn their nose up at it every time. Second, I bought one of those weight sensitive feeders for sunflower seed and the squirrels gave up trying to get into it. It also discouraged large birds too, like grackles etc. |
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