On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:39:44 +0000 (UTC), "Mike"
wrote:


See :-

http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_informa...g/general/pet/
You might just change your mind !



I am a dog lover.

I have had dogs.
I have trained dogs.


Good enough for you?

and before you come down on the old chestnut about dog crap on pavements,
that is as a result of untrained humans.

That paints a revolting picture ;-)

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:42:06 +0100, John wrote:

In article ,
"Mike" wrote:

We had our garden open to the public yesterday and one of the comments was
'Don't you have a lot of birds?'. We have bird feeders behind wire netting
to keep the Pigeons off and also to try to keep the Starlings off.

Leaving aside any mention of cats, dogs, etc .. I am MUCH more
interested in the type of wire netting you use to protect the bird
feeders. What type is it? What gauge (i.e. how big are the holes?)

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!


Having seen the antics of the Grey Squirrel when visiting the North Island
and how they beat everything, the only suggestion I can make, is to have the
birdfeeder hanging free in a very open space on a thin but strong thread.
(In the hope that the thread will be too small for them to grip) and to have
a large inverted umbrella shaped very small gauge wire netting screen fixed
to the thread and its bottom edge being lower than the feeder.

"IN THEORY" (famous last words) 'If' the Squirrel can grip the cord and come
down it, by the time it has crawled down the 'umbrella' it will be too low
and too far away to get to the feeder. The trouble is, that in time it would
learn to get round the bottom edge and up inside I suppose :-((

Unless an umbrella of something very slippery/shiny is made, then as soon as
it gets to the top on its descent down the cord, it would slide off!!!

?????

Mike

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 09:23:44 +0000 (UTC), "Mike"
wrote:



Unless an umbrella of something very slippery/shiny is made, then as soon as
it gets to the top on its descent down the cord, it would slide off!!!

?????

Mike


The answer is a large plastic funnel used for oil etc. Until recently,
I had a nice environmentally green one but it eventually cracked and I
have been unable to locate another.

If anyone know where I might find one, I'd be very grateful.

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 09:23:44 +0000 (UTC), "Mike"
wrote:

Having seen the antics of the Grey Squirrel when visiting the North Island
and how they beat everything, the only suggestion I can make, is to have the
birdfeeder hanging free in a very open space on a thin but strong thread.
(In the hope that the thread will be too small for them to grip) and to have
a large inverted umbrella shaped very small gauge wire netting screen fixed
to the thread and its bottom edge being lower than the feeder.

"IN THEORY" (famous last words) 'If' the Squirrel can grip the cord and come
down it, by the time it has crawled down the 'umbrella' it will be too low
and too far away to get to the feeder. The trouble is, that in time it would
learn to get round the bottom edge and up inside I suppose :-((

Unless an umbrella of something very slippery/shiny is made, then as soon as
it gets to the top on its descent down the cord, it would slide off!!!

Tried something similar but without the umbrella. We replaced the
standard hook on a feeder with a long wire but if the wire was too
thick the little fluffy darlings could climb down it and if it was too
thin they just bit right through it and got the feeder onto the
ground.

JB

In message , JB
writes
Tried something similar but without the umbrella. We replaced the
standard hook on a feeder with a long wire but if the wire was too
thick the little fluffy darlings could climb down it and if it was too
thin they just bit right through it and got the feeder onto the ground.

JB

For seeds we have one of the cage types - has worked fine so far. For
peanuts, we want to give access to the woodpeckers, so we have one of
the long tubular holders, which has a metal tube that slides down if the
squirrel tries to come down along it.

http://www.wildforms.co.uk/html/squi...of_feeder.html

The whole thing hangs from a wire, which itself hangs from a high
washing line put up for the purpose. So far they haven't worked out how
to go along the washing line and then bite through the wire, and the
whole thing is (presumably) too high up off the ground for them to jump
up.

But we are surrounded by sweet chestnut trees which they harvest and
hide, so they are probably not that desperate.

So far, so good ...
--
Klara, Gatwick basin

In message , JB
writes
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:42:06 +0100, John wrote:

In article ,
"Mike" wrote:

We had our garden open to the public yesterday and one of the comments was
'Don't you have a lot of birds?'. We have bird feeders behind wire netting
to keep the Pigeons off and also to try to keep the Starlings off.

Leaving aside any mention of cats, dogs, etc .. I am MUCH more
interested in the type of wire netting you use to protect the bird
feeders. What type is it? What gauge (i.e. how big are the holes?)

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!

We had plenty of squirrels in our last garden, plastic feeders were no
good, but there are plenty of feeders around that are pretty squirrel
proof
--
Chris French

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 21:04:29 +0100, Chris French and Helen Johnson
wrote:

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!

We had plenty of squirrels in our last garden, plastic feeders were no
good, but there are plenty of feeders around that are pretty squirrel
proof

So far we have found only one design that effectively keeps the
squirrels out but that is such a heavyweight design that it is too
ugly to keep near to the house and, more significantly, keeps half the
birds out.

In message , JB
writes
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 21:04:29 +0100, Chris French and Helen Johnson
wrote:

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!

We had plenty of squirrels in our last garden, plastic feeders were no
good, but there are plenty of feeders around that are pretty squirrel
proof

So far we have found only one design that effectively keeps the
squirrels out but that is such a heavyweight design that it is too
ugly to keep near to the house and, more significantly, keeps half the
birds out.

I've got an all metal stainless steel mesh feeder for peanuts that
remained secure for years.

I also found the Defender type birdfeeders from CJ Wildbird foods to be
very resistant as the tops, base, and feeding ports are all metal.

But I guess that it depends on how persistent the squirrels area in
particular area.
--
Chris French

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:02:24 +0100, Chris French and Helen Johnson
wrote:

In message , JB
writes
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 21:04:29 +0100, Chris French and Helen Johnson
wrote:

and what sort of netting, wire, elctric fence, razor wire whatever
will keep the squirrels off the bird feeders!

We had plenty of squirrels in our last garden, plastic feeders were no
good, but there are plenty of feeders around that are pretty squirrel
proof

So far we have found only one design that effectively keeps the
squirrels out but that is such a heavyweight design that it is too
ugly to keep near to the house and, more significantly, keeps half the
birds out.

I've got an all metal stainless steel mesh feeder for peanuts that
remained secure for years.

I also found the Defender type birdfeeders from CJ Wildbird foods to be
very resistant as the tops, base, and feeding ports are all metal.

But I guess that it depends on how persistent the squirrels area in
particular area.

The defender type is what I have at present. The squirrels can not
bite through the wire mesh but they have shown that they can get
enough purchase on each wire in the mesh to allow them to bend it back
and so get in. Alternatively if it is just suspended from a hook then
they can lift the entire feeder and drop it on the ground.

In their own verminous destructive way they are quite impressive!

JB

In message , JB
writes
On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 11:02:24 +0100, Chris French and Helen Johnson
wrote:

So far we have found only one design that effectively keeps the
squirrels out but that is such a heavyweight design that it is too
ugly to keep near to the house and, more significantly, keeps half the
birds out.

I've got an all metal stainless steel mesh feeder for peanuts that
remained secure for years.

I also found the Defender type birdfeeders from CJ Wildbird foods to be
very resistant as the tops, base, and feeding ports are all metal.

But I guess that it depends on how persistent the squirrels area in
particular area.

The defender type is what I have at present. The squirrels can not
bite through the wire mesh but they have shown that they can get
enough purchase on each wire in the mesh to allow them to bend it back
and so get in. Alternatively if it is just suspended from a hook then
they can lift the entire feeder and drop it on the ground.

You seem to be talking about something different.

The Defender one I was talking about was one like this:

http://www.birdfood.co.uk/dev/shop/p...D=10&sub=11&pI
D=722

But I guess you were talking about the mesh peanut feeders.

They used to have a go at the mesh peanut feeder but never made much
impact, the size of the mesh was probably to small for them to be able
to bend it out of the way eough to be a able to make a significant
impact on the peanuts inside.
--
Chris French

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 09:14:07 +0100, chris French
wrote:

You seem to be talking about something different.

The Defender one I was talking about was one like this:

http://www.birdfood.co.uk/dev/shop/p...D=10&sub=11&pI
D=722

But I guess you were talking about the mesh peanut feeders.

They used to have a go at the mesh peanut feeder but never made much
impact, the size of the mesh was probably to small for them to be able
to bend it out of the way eough to be a able to make a significant
impact on the peanuts inside.

Yes I was talking about the peanut feeders. We do not seem to have too
much of a problem with the seed feeders and a google on defender CJ
Wildfoods turned up a list which included a defender peanut feeder -
hence I thought that was what you had referred to. Oh well the next
step is for my OH to get out the .22, I think this squirrel has had
its chances!