rope question

[ransley]

I have a feeder on a pole with phone line about 6ft above it, I thought I knew how smart squirrels were until one that couldnt get up my feeder, or jump down on it from the telephone wire without hitting the slippery feeder roof, tried to fall onto the feeder by eating through my telephone line. Luckily I saw what he was doing and moved the pole before he ate through my phone line. A cable with weight on a tree will over time cause it harm by stopping its growth where it is forced on the tree. Damage will occur slowly, and a bolt will eventualy rust and leave a hole. My neighbor has killed the top of her tree with a cable. You need something wide to distribute the cables weight. A pole is usualy best for a feeder

[Doug Miller]

So put the damn thing on a post already. Why is it important to suspend it 20 feet in the air? If the squirrels can't get to the seed anyway, what difference does it make *where* the feeder is?

[Larry Fishel]

A couple of things.

If these are fairly large trees, be careful of stretching the rope too tight. When a stiff gust causes the trees to sway in opposite directions a tremendous amount of force may be applied to the rope (enough to snap just about anything if it doesn't stretch enough).

Traversing 20 feet of wobbly rope won't slow a 3-legged squirrel down much (they may try to balance on top at first, but if that fails they will just cross it upside down). If the trick openings are working, that sounds like the only thing that will matter. I'd be very surprised if hanging it between trees will change anything.

And of course, if all else fails, they'll probably just chew through the rope...

[norminn]

My mom had a bird feeder on a post and she used to smear Crisco on the post so's the squirrels could not climb it :o)

[Bob F]

Like make a large loop of wide webbing around the tree, with the cable attached to the loop. That allows to tree to grow without getting strangled.

[Steve B]

Pieces of industrial strength hose do well, as do split tires. I'm not sure what type of webbing you are suggesting.

Steve

visit my blog at

[Bob F]

Nylon webbing. I used abandoned truck strap around a big cottonwood and a old climbing rope to hold up a fallen apple tree for the last ten years.

[NoSpam]

Suggest you use your eyebolts. Tie rope to one & pass through the other to a weight. This is an easy way to keep the rope tight even if it stretches as it ages. Also, you can just pull the feeder down to service it. When done, simply let it return to its normal height. No tying/untying knots, etc.

[Steve B]

Damn fine suggestion. I would have not thought of that.

Steve

[JimT]

That was great. Thanks for posting. I have a bird feeder on a post. Sits at about 5 feet high. When I first put it up they tried and tried to jump on it from a trellis about 4 ft away. They had to make a perfect landing to get to the food which was almost impossible. They tried and tried but I don't think they ever made it. Sure was fun to watch. Prior to this we tried all sorts of feeders that the squirrels would figure out. They are remarkably crafty critters. :-)

Mine looks like this but I have it attached to a metal pole. Only small birds fit on the perch. The largest birds we get are cardinals. The thing is about these feeders is, even if the squirrel gets on top they can't get to the perch. They just fall off. Watching them try can be entertaining for hours. If they did manage to get a meal they deserve it.

[The Daring Dufas]

You could use green vinyl covered wire rope like that used for clothes lines and attach it to screw eyes screwed into the tree. It is flexible enough to work with pulleys to raise and lower it. I'd have some fun with the squirrels by sliding lengths of green painted PVC pipe over the wire so the critters would roll off when trying to walk the wire to get to the bird feed.

TDD

[Steve B]

We're all sharing things here on feeders and such. I saw this on TV about NASA. But with a twist. They were describing how they would stop things in space when they would oscillate beyond control. They had a tube that had balls on it, and springs at the end of the tubes so that when something spun, the balls went to the end, made a thunk, and took some of the oscillation and dampened it. Over a short time, the oscillation was dampened, and in a very short time. They then showed the real time on earth application, and that was to hang a weight under something that was say, swinging in the wind wildly, and the feeder/whatever would go one way, swinging the weight the other, each swing reducing the action by half. In a very short time, the weight will stop the feeder/whatever from swinging. Or at least when it is windy, cause it not to swing so violently. Try it. It really works. Really. Really good. Use a cord for the weight that is at least as long, or longer than the tethering cord to the feeder/whatever. Watch it work. It is intriguing.

Yer welcome. Well, it's from your tax dollars and NASA.

Steve

visit my blog at

[The Daring Dufas]

So when collected, the squirrels were already tenderized?

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

Have you seen the huge weights used to stabilize skyscrapers? It's amazing to watch those things move back and forth when a big wind whips up.

TDD

[Pat]

I have a black rope with some red. I think it is called a truckers rope. It has been outdoors for the 20 years that I have had it and it is still in pretty good shape. It was old when I got it off the side of the road. I have some white nylon rope that has been outdoors for 20 years also that is still in great shape.

[Steve B]

Black/red is polypropylene. Lasts a long time.

Steve

[Phisherman]

I use 20# test fish line for my hummingbird feeder. Replace the line every 12 months.