Best thing I have found (I am an ornithologist and used to be a professional
feeder designer) was to add cayenne pepper to the nuts. The birds actually
loved the stuff but it offended the sensibilities of the squirrels!
Neil


"edward holt" wrote in message
...
I've got a bird feeder that dishes out peanuts to the local birds - tit's,
finches, sparrows etc.
It's made of metal and is supposed to keep off the squirrels (grey
squirrels
in my case).

It doesn't work - the squirrels still feed on it.
So I'm looking for a way of stopping the squirrels feeding on it.

I've got the metal bird feeder suspended from a piece of copper wire (I
thought the squirrels would not be able to climb down the copper wire).
This also did not help.

Is there any way I can attach a battery to the copper wire to give the
squirrels a polite shock to persuade them not to feed there?