Help please with Squirell feeder

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Chasey

Chasey

Well-Known Member
Hi all

One of my permisions has a big problem with squerell dammage and they want it braught under control. I tried walking it with a 22 but lots of hours were not productive enough.

So I am planning two feeder stations to bring them into a shootable position.

My thaughts were, a 6" soil pipe with a screw cap top screwed to a board at the base with notches in the pipe to allow grain to trickle out and feed on the board which will be the kill zone


Q1 I have access to corn, is that the best bait or is it at least acceptable?


Q2: how big should I make the notches so they feed and dont clog


Q3 Is there anything else I need to consider?


Thanks in advance


Mark

feeder.webp
 
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A normal pheasant feeder normally attracts them! Might be less fun but have you considered trapping them?
 
Any bait station with consistent supply of food will attract them. Whole maize and peanuts are good I find. Shooting is great sport but to reduce numbers properly you need a good trapping regime. Live cage traps are great if you cant visit every day as you can pre bait them and leave them open, unset and unattended. Then set them for a couple of days when you're able to check them. Multi catch traps particularly effective.
 
I made my own from spare decking planks. A big hopper (bigger the better so there's less distubance going to the feeder to re stock).
It looks like your design will work, just a couple of things you may not have considered,
- Hanging them allows them to swing / swivel aka a moving target, Ive tended to fix mine on a post above badger height.
- Use the features to create visible pathways into the feeder, walls, fences, fallen trees / logs are all good routes they will naturally use before crossing open ground. This means you can watch them come into to feed, when they're checking the area and other squirrels. It can help you to time shots to minimise disturbance, when there are multiple squirrels using the feeder. If its on a tree you can have them coming to the feeder and not stopping before hiding on the otherside of the tree!
-Put a tunnel leading up to the feed (about the length of an adult squirrel & 3-4" square), with a small sitting area at the entrance of the tunnel. This reduces the amount of bait lst to birds and causes the squirrels to pause before going in and once happy on the feeder they'll just sit at the entrance to feed (which is great if it's in profile from your position).
- Put some kind of retaining wall round where the feed comes out, this means that the feed will form a little pile and not just end up on the ground.

The size of the hole depends on your bait of choice, I use whole monkey nuts (peanuts in the shell) and had a hole 3" high and the width of the board (5 1/2"), with a 1" high wall about 3" away from opening.


Trapping is the least time consuming way of getting numbers down in a single wood, but shooting is more enjoyable. Dont neglect your field craft and get used to being still / quiet for long peiods, their as sharp as crows in my experience.

Good luck
 
You can soon forget about shooting them, once this piece of kit is approved (currently under review by Defra, I believe) for UK use it will kill some 20 Grey Squirrels cleanly without requiring any poison, maintenance or daily visits, before being re-charged.
The ideal solution to the massive Grey Squirrel problem I would say...
Goodnature: Rat Stoat
 
wow that looks good. In this case you need to be trapping them. in the winter a big push on drey poking will then help reduce the breeding population. In forestry I have seen specific squirrel feeders which use whole maize bait coated in anticoagulant poison.

D
 
Chasey said:
Hi all

One of my permisions has a big problem with squerell dammage and they want it braught under control. I tried walking it with a 22 but lots of hours were not productive enough.

So I am planning two feeder stations to bring them into a shootable position.

My thaughts were, a 6" soil pipe with a screw cap top screwed to a board at the base with notches in the pipe to allow grain to trickle out and feed on the board which will be the kill zone


Q1 I have access to corn, is that the best bait or is it at least acceptable?


Q2: how big should I make the notches so they feed and dont clog


Q3 Is there anything else I need to consider?


Thanks in advance


Mark

View attachment 71725
Click to expand...

If it's made from plastic then this is irrelivant as they will chew any holes big enough so they can climb through and sit on the pile of bait. Every feeder I've made (apart from one from an old galvanised dustbin) squirrels have chewed their way into them.
 
squirrels will chew anything plastic.
they will always raid pheasant feeders which you could use
with wheat.
or a peanut feeder, they are very partial to peanuts.
it depends on the time of year and available natural food.
You could just put a pile of wheat under suitable trees
which you can approach to a vantage point.
this is a shooting approach which will reduce numbers and provide sport
but not come anywhere near eliminating em. for this you need
a proper trapping system either live traps or tunnel traps.
(I dont like using poisons.)


if using wheat the notches need to be as wide as the wheat
grains are long. but needs to be metal.

The rat stoat........now I have to look at that
its an ideal fox baiter.
 
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If u google squirel feeders, few websites with designs for the reds. Usually looks like a bird box type design with a lid on a flap.

A feeder will concentrate them in an area so u can concentrate the traps there. But if u have a feeder and baited traps u migh thave to close ur feeder off as if have easy accesstofood migh tnot go in ur traps the same.

Must admit i've been luckily recently, pre baiting cage traps with doors fixed open for around 5-7 days, then set and usually caugh tthe squirrels withn a few days, but i'm in areas with big numbers of reds and just targeting a few greys spotted in foks gardens/woodlands.
As we have a lot of reds if u bait traps with whole maize it seems to attract greys more than reds.
Generally they don't sem to hard to trap and are fairly inquisitive really
 
Thanks for all the inpit lads

I am sure trapping would be more eficient but we are thinking of the sport as well.

Plan is to set up some stations in range of the high seats so theres some supressed .22 action whilst waiting for the dear to turn up :)

How high off the ground is too high? I was thinking about 1.0m up at tree?

SHould i put an atractor on it first to get them up there?

Somone sugested penut buitter?

ATB
 
I'd just make one out of wood. I did one in about 30min and strapped it to a tree and I find it very effective. Place somewhere with a good backstop and then fill with corn. I find there is normally one feeding so I tend to shoot one after drawing a blank when out after deer at the end of a stalk or if I'm over that way in the car anyway I'll take the 17 hornet and pop one from 100m off bipod. Have shot a few with the rimfire after going out specifically to shoot squirrels but tbh I can't be arsed to get up early just to shoot squirrels. Here's a pic of the feeder I made. image-3.webp
 
Chasey said:
Hi all

One of my permisions has a big problem with squerell dammage and they want it braught under control. I tried walking it with a 22 but lots of hours were not productive enough.

So I am planning two feeder stations to bring them into a shootable position.

My thaughts were, a 6" soil pipe with a screw cap top screwed to a board at the base with notches in the pipe to allow grain to trickle out and feed on the board which will be the kill zone


Q1 I have access to corn, is that the best bait or is it at least acceptable?


Q2: how big should I make the notches so they feed and dont clog


Q3 Is there anything else I need to consider?


Thanks in advance


Mark

View attachment 71725
Click to expand...

Chasey said:
Thanks for all the inpit lads

I am sure trapping would be more eficient but we are thinking of the sport as well.

Plan is to set up some stations in range of the high seats so theres some supressed .22 action whilst waiting for the dear to turn up :)

How high off the ground is too high? I was thinking about 1.0m up at tree?

SHould i put an atractor on it first to get them up there?

Somone sugested penut buitter?

ATB
Click to expand...

Sadly the 2 are not really always compatable, if ur landowner is getting tree damage u really have to put sport to the back burner and get on with damage prevention.
Putting out feeders without proper control will only make ur squirel problem and tree damage worse, and cost u a susprising ammount in nuts or maize (peanuts are about 25 quid a 25kg, bag i was going throu a bag a month just feeding reds in a small area) With the extra food will breed better etc
If u have pelnty of squirel about u will still get some sport shooting them around ur hoppers traps.

With cage traps u could pre-pait all week and set on a Fri nite and work them all wknd and possibly move on a sun for the next week
 
The bigger diameter pipe the better, try a y branch fitting on the base end with a blanking plug with small drain holes in it , cut maze works best for squirrels where we are , we wire them to a tree near a high seat , have a look at Google images ( drain pipe deer feeder ) muntjac love em ,
 
Peanut bird feeders attract them like magnets

Head shoot them with a .22 or air rifle and find a local butcher who'll take them. Plenty of the butchers round here cant get enough of them!
 
Dorsettaff said:
Peanut bird feeders attract them like magnets

Head shoot them with a .22 or air rifle and find a local butcher who'll take them. Plenty of the butchers round here cant get enough of them!
Click to expand...

+1 Two peanut feeders and .17 HMR exterminated 31 squirrels in 2 days. Like a magnet is true
 
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