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Electrified Squirrel-Proof Feeder
Seed-stealing squirrels on his bird feeders are no longer a problem for James Henson, Union Mills, N.C., who uses an electric fence charger to shock them away.
  He has 3 feeders that hang from a horizontal metal arm attached to a vertical pole. A plastic tube finch feeder is located just a few inches from the pole, with 2 large sunflower feeders beyond it. He cut up some wire mesh and covered the catch tray on the finch feeder. Then he took a fence charger and hooked the ground to the pole, and wired the hot side of the charger to the mesh.
  “In the past, squirrels would climb the pole and run across the finch feeder to get to the sunflower feeders. Now when they touch the finch feeder, with their rear feet still on the vertical pole, the fence charger shocks them and it only takes once,” says Henson. “I’ve seen squirrels jump up and backward 7 to 8 ft. while trying to climb the pole. After that they’ll sometimes walk 15 ft. around the pole just to avoid getting shocked again. I ran a bare wire up alongside the feeder tube in case a squirrel ever tries to climb above the tray.
  “This electrified hookup doesn’t affect birds since they can’t touch both the feeder and pole at the same time. The squirrels eat daily on the ground beneath the feeder, but they never climb it any more.”
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, James Henson, 2617 Rock Road, Union Mills, N.C. 28167 (ph 828 748-5633; doehenson1@gmail.com).



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2018 - Volume #42, Issue #4