Squirrel digging out chicken feeder

[davidjkcho]

A couple of squirrels are messing with our chicken feeders.
I have two 2 feet tall 4" pipe feeders and saw squirrels going into the coop once in a while.
I saw they would just eat some foods but they completely dug out all the foods from both feeders during last few days.
Chicken foods are all over the coop now and the feeders are empty.

How do I stop them?

 

[nuthatched]

Rat traps, Rat X, maybe chicken wire.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Does your set up include a predator tight run or is it a coop + only free range? If you have a run, tighten up security to exclude squirrels. Or take up squirrel hunting. We had a squirrel dropping into our run from the tree above until I caught it in the coop one day and locked it inside. Sent hubby in and no more squirrel issue.

 

[davidjkcho]

My coop is secure but my chicken run is not so tight.
Anyway, I caught one today and release it 10 miles away.
I don't know how many to go.

 

[BlueBaby]

Squirrel traps work. That's how I got rid of mine. I caught 9 of them and took them 10 miles down the road where there were no houses.

 

[SourRoses]

It's bananas to hear that other people have problems with squirrels, because we're absolutely surrounded by them in a canopy of old oaks and ours never mess around near the chickens. If they come close one of the hens will give them the eyeball, and the squirrels dash off.

Not so much the grasshoppers. Why won't my hens go after XL grasshoppers? They just ran away!

Maybe you just need a more assertive flock member? A bossy hen or a roo??
Meanwhile, the only control I can suggest is to feed the chickens a daily portion and in different spots around the yard until the squirrely expectations are broken. A feeder that always moves around is a deterrent to the gentler critters like wild birds and such. It's not that they don't realize where it is, but they haven't plotted out their approach to it, which takes some confidence and time.

 

[Penpal]

I have heard that hot peppers keep squirrels away, even dried bits. Peppermint spray also works.

 

[davidjkcho]

I caught two so far and saw another visitor to the coop today.

 

[Debbie292d]

We border a forest and have a lot of squirrels, both gray and red. The red ones are destructive to a home and if they start getting out of hand, I have a 20-gauge. After two less of them in the yard, the rest seem to be gone for a month or two.

The problem we had in the coop, though, was with chipmunks. That ended once we taught the border collie what "check coop" meant. Now, she, the Corgi, and the three cats all began periodically going in the chicken door, so that ended the problem.

There were a couple times someone came out carrying one, but that's sad as I kind of like those little buggers! Oh well, it had to stop, and it is.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Squirrels are tough to stop even with a treadle feeder. A PVC pipe feeder like the OP has, no chance of keeping them out. With a treadle feeder you need a narrow and distant treadle, not a wide step, and the door MUST be spring pre loaded to provide some resistance to just being pushed open. Most treadle feeders are missing both features unfortunately.

But squirrels are rodents so fall back on Howard E.'s posts on rodent control's three steps. Sanitation, exclusion, elimination, in that order. Do the first, you won't need to do the second, do either the first or second and you don't need to do the third method of elimination.

Sanitation, bulk feed in metal barrels with lids, a proper treadle feeder with the narrow and distant treadle and the pre loaded door, no plastic either. Clean up all approach areas to force the squirrels out into the open for travel so natural predators have a shot at getting at them. Squirrels will have a territory and will travel several hundred yards to a shared resource like a chicken coop. They will protect their own territory from other squirrels, chicken coops and farm lots tend to be shared especially if you have forest surrounding you.

Exclusion, Ft. Knox coop. Hardware cloth all sides and buried deep in the ground. Doors kept closed so no free range. This method is far more expensive than the sanitation method but it can work.

Elimination, traps, playing Elmer Fudd, poisons. A never ending chore and expense with short term results. Empty territories quickly attract a new critter as young are born and then eventually driven away from the nest. Young males will travel looking for empty space or a territory where they can fight and win.

If you have swarms of squirrels they might overwhelm even a good treadle feeder but the feeder should also trap the squirrels and have a french cleat so you can just lift the feeder up to dispose of the squirrel. Check state wildlife regs before taking one for a ride. Generally marauding wildlife is okay to destroy on site out of season but again check with the local game warden.