Have you ever had one of those instances where the feed you prepare for your birds (or even some food you prepare for your pets) disappear much faster than usual? So you decide to do a little sleuthing and spy on the cage, only to find that other animals have decided that they deserve the food just as much as your pet does—specifically the squirrel. This happens especially often right before winter comes at full force, when the little woodland creatures are stocking up on their food supplies. You cannot really blame them, nature and instinct dictates what they have to do in order to survive—but if you let them have their way, your birds will end up going hungry all because of your on and off ‘pets’.
If you are willing to invest a little effort, then there is a way to solve this problem that doesn’t involve harming the squirrels in any way—in fact, they will be happier than ever. All you have to do is build them their own little spot which they can gather food from, their very own squirrel feeder. If you like this idea better than simply trying to hunt the little critters down which, to be honest sounds like it might actually take a lot more effort, then read on to the steps listed below which will aid you in building your own squirrel feeder:
- Collect the materials and tools you need. For this ‘home-improvement’ project, you are going to need a handsaw, a hammer, some nails, dried corn kernels, and finally, some pine boards. The recommended amount and sizes for the boards would be to have a couple of one-by-six inch boards, as well as some one-by-three inch boards. You will not need all of them, but it is always better to have some extra, just in case.
- Use your handsaw to divide the boards. Using the smaller boards you have, divide it into about four pieces that should be a foot long each (or perhaps shorter). You will also need four pieces of pine boards that are about six inches, so use your handsaw to make those as well. Finally, you can use one of your one-by-six inch boards as a base for the squirrel feeder along with a sort of table-top that should be about six inches on every side.
- Nail the squirrel feeder together. It is now time to make the squirrel feeder. Using two of those foot-long pine boards, nail them together to form the shape of the letter ‘T’. Make another one that is the exact same thing. Afterward, grab two of those six inch pine boards you sawed out and nail each one of them underneath the two pairs of pine boards you had nailed together to make two ‘seats’ that can sit up on its own. Once that is finished, take two more of the six inch boards and nail them together to make a shape that looks like the letter ‘X’, nailing that into the two seats to support it. Finally, you can attach those seats to your base pine board (nailing them together as well) and add the table top.
- Prepare the squirrel feast. To complete the process, just place the squirrel feeder somewhere in your yard (somewhere easy to spot), and pour the dried corn kernels on the seats.
Having followed all of the steps, congratulations, you have saved your pets from going hungry, and made some obnoxious little squirrels very happy.