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"Water Jug" Chickadee Feeder
“It’s big enough that I only had to refill it once all last winter, and the following spring there was less than a cup of wasted seed on the ground under it,” says John Dougoveto, Iron Mountain, Mich., about the “chickadee feeder” he made out of a 4-gal. Culligan water jug.
  He laid the jug on its side and wrapped 2 wires around it, adding a connecting wire between them that serves as a hanger. Then he bent an old wire clothes hanger to make a perch and used a pair of hose clamps to fasten it onto the jug’s opening.
  “It works really good. I hang it under the eve of our porch,” says Dougoveto. “I don’t go through nearly as many seeds as I would with a conventional bird feeder. Also, rain and snow can’t get on the feed.
  “When I first set the feeder out the birds were slightly hesitant, but soon one landed on the perch, went inside the bottle, grabbed a sunflower seed and flew away. That’s why there’s very little waste – there’s no way for them to knock seeds to the ground. The birds often land on top of the jug or on the porch railing and wait their turn to get into the bottle.
  “At first I used duct tape to fasten the perch onto the jug opening, but squirrels started to chew on the tape so I replaced it with hose clamps. Now the squirrels don’t even try to get inside the bottle.”
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, John P. Dougoveto, W8803 Lansford Dr., Iron Mountain, Mich. 49801 (ph 906 774-4526).


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2012 - Volume #36, Issue #6