I love watching the birds in my backyard bird feeder. They’re one of my greatest joys in life, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. But one thing that used to frustrate me to no end were the squirrels that constantly got in and ate all my bird feed! I tried many different solutions get rid of these pests and nothing worked until I found the droll Yankee bird feeder.
These are one of the most popular squirrel proof bird feeders on the market today. They look like a normal tube feeder but they have a sort of ring feature at the base that spins whenever a squirrel tries to sit on it. This spinning actually throws the squirrel right off the feeder! Most of these models run a little motor that is battery powered and controls the spinning action. Don’t worry though, the motor is weight activated and birds won’t set it off.
Pros and cons: these are great bird feeders make no mistake, but there are some cons involved; as well as the pros! The pros are quite obvious, they keep the squirrels out of your bird feed. Plus it’s just infinitely satisfying to teach these little pests a lesson they so richly deserve! But the cons involved can be numerous and you need to know about them in advance before you purchase one.
The main Con in my mind is the cost (and I’ll discuss that a little later on down the page). Another con is that you have to change the battery every so often, which probably isn’t such a big deal. Another con is that sometimes the squirrels can get clever and realize that they can’t sit on the ring anymore, but they can still knock the thing around and dump some of the seed on to the ground.
Another con is that heavier birds can set the motor off in some circumstances. I said earlier that birds won’t set off the motor, and that’s true for the most part. But every once in a while you just get a larger bird who just hits the thing just right and sets it off. This isn’t a huge deal except it might momentarily frightened bird but I don’t think it actually hurts them.
Another con is that rainwater can affect the motor if you’re not careful. To get around that you just need to set up some sort of a squirrel baffle on top of the feeder; this will usually take care of that problem completely. The final con is that these things are kind of intricate and children playing around them can sometimes mess them up if they bump into them or handle them. So keep your kids away if possible.
I mentioned Price, what should you expect? one of the main obstacles to purchasing a droll Yankee bird feeder is the price as I mentioned above. You can expect to pay around $100 for a standard model. In this day and age $100 isn’t as expensive as it used to be, but in the world of bird feeders it’s quite a steep jump in price if you ask me! Still these little guys are well worth it and I think you’ll be happy to keep the squirrels away!