Turkeys and squirrels would make short work of seed, leaving none for the small birds.
Nearly everyone who feeds wild birds sees squirrels gobbling up expensive seed. Elaborate and expensive feeders help birds eat while excluding squirrels. We use a different method.
Plenty of squirrels make Winding Pathways home. So do wild turkeys. We enjoy watching them and don’t mind giving them some seed. Unfortunately, they come in droves and wolf down all the seeds. Each morning we sprinkle some seeds on the lawn for both turkeys and squirrels but we needed to keep them away from a feeder favored by cardinals, chickadees titmice, and other birds.
This homemade excluder seems to stop squirrels and turkeys while allowing in songbirds.
We built a simple but effective squirrel and turkey excluder out of scrap lumber. It’s merely a rectangular box two feet wide and four feet long. The frame is made of 2×2 lumber, the top is of treated ½ inch plywood, and the sides are of 2×2 inch mesh heavy wire. There is no bottom.
We placed a feeder on a homemade picnic table and put the turkey and squirrel excluder over it. One end of the excluder is hinged to the table, making it easy to lift the other side to fill the feeder.
So far squirrels and turkeys have not been able to infiltrate the excluder and stay outside enjoying the cracked corn we’ve spread specially for them.
That looks like a good idea! How Long have you had it in use? And wondering if any of the birds would have trouble getting away quickly enough if bullied by another bird while in the excluder?
We don’t have turkeys but we have squirrels aplenty, and they love getting in the feeders where they are safe. Friends gave us a small hanging feeder that was meant to exclude squirrels by means of a wire double-chamber, with an inner chamber for seeds and the outer chamber for songbirds.
I thought it was working fine until one day I looked out and saw a tiny red squirrel lying on its side like a little Roman, pulling itself around inside the feeder, leisurely eating its fill. Ah well, they get hungry too.
Your solution sounds perfect.