Guardian seed feeder

[aelish2003]

Hi. Has anyone been using the (CJ)guardian seedfeeders? I ordered two, a seed and a nut feeder (via my local petshop), as squirrels are rampant and wily where I live. These feeders are not cheap, but I found they were both suited to seed and not to nuts (no mesh). I,ve taken one back, but the second is not being used much, and I have seen a great tit fail to get inside the cage, despite a picture of a great tit on the feeder label. Help! Are these an expensive "blue tit only" feeder? or do I need to give it time? (Also no finches robins sparrows or dunnock appear able to get in)

[Lisa]

Hi

The peanut version of the Guardian should contain a peanut feeder, was this not the case? It sounds as though you have received 2 seed versions by mistake.

Some of the birds will be nervous of the cage at first as it is an enclosed space. We suggest that the cage is mounted first near to some cover where the birds will feel more protected. Once they feel safe going in and out of the cage you should be able to move this to a more open area.

Great Tits, House Sparrows, Greenfinches and Robins will have no problem getting in and out of the cage once they are confident enough to give it ago.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards

[aelish2003]

Thank you Lisa. I will be patient. Perhaps the presence of a rather hansome male sparrowhawk is making the birds more wary too. The feeder is in the (currently bare) branches of an apple tree, so the location is good. Hopefully the birds will return.:)

[ExtraMedium]

How long should we decently and reasonably wait before drawing the conclusion that it's not for sparrows?

Blue tits seem happy enough, but they are smaller, Great tits are attracted but I've yet to see one try it. Sparrows around here are very bold and cheeky, but not managing to get through the bars yet. Just sat on it looking at the food, which they very clearly want.

Amazingly the local Robins have been trying to get in too, and that's a first for them, they tend to not be interested in hanging feeders at all historically. They hovered and landed on it and even looked all around it, not seen one enter, yet it does seem they'd like to if they could. But if they are small enough I'd not be all that surprised if they went in having seen the efforts they made so far.

I'm not certain if the bars are perhaps just a little too close set? It is starting to look like it judging from the results. I'm not sure what to think yet. Anyone ever seen sparrows use feeders in these things?

If it did just let blue tits in then I'd not be completely upset as I really like them, but we don't have all that many around here. I'm really not terribly keen on winding up the other small birds that seem to be struggling with it. They were fine with other feeders though, but sadly so were the squirrels. It's definitely not nice to show them the goods then not let them get at it. It could far too easily be construed, by some, as cruelty for my liking.

Somewhat concerned by this turn of events.:(

[Edit] How odd, I changed the feed (just in case) a few hours ago, and sure enough more were feeding, and it now included some sparrows but not all.

I watched for some time to see what was going on. It seems it is quite possibly an intelligence thing. A bit like the the video recorder thing; you know get the kids to show you how, that sort of thing.

The young ones are fine with it, the big males are totally baffled by it, until they see a young one do it, then they seems to get it!

There was one there for a good ten minutes just wandering all over the thing, taking a rest on the fence and then coming back for another look, not getting a sniff at the goodies, but then a cheeky young rip comes dashing in and starts feeding, soon as our big dope saw that, he got it!

There's a lot of big daft older males by the looks of it.

What are they like!:D

[aelish2003]

Hi! I'm afraid I gave up in frustration, (having changed the position and, like you, felt it was mean to offer unobtainable sustenance) and I returned the feeders to the pet shop where I got a full refund. They found me a different brand.. sorry i don't remember the name, and the birds just instantly got in. (And the squirrels remain thwarted some months later)

I think the bars are too close. The guage of the wire is good and strong, but maybe this was an "improvement" on an original spec, and left the gap too narrow. the birds use the new feeders very readily, though at the moment there's a preponderance of juveniles. I know in some species the sexes vary in their food preferences (some bird species I mean ha ha) is this it? or are the adults busy catching insect life whilst it's abundant, and the babies find the feeders easier?

I hope your locals catch on, but if they don't, "Other Feeders Are Available"!

[Jenny]

Bit confused here! I had an old peanut guardian (bought from CJs when I had a garden inhabited by squirrels) and never had any problem. I don't use it here - no squirrels - and gave to a friend down south who does. She's not experienced the problems described. She did say that it took some time for birds to get used to it and that once serious winter conditions came, the birds never hesitated.

[ExtraMedium]

It just seems to take some sparrows longer than others to figure it out.

I'm going to guess that perhaps not so many gardens feature CJ feeders compared to, oh I don't know, let's say Nature's Feast ones. So the ports are possibly far less familiar to older birds, and the younger ones have yet to get any fixed ideas into their heads about what a feeder port might look like in general, as to them, everything is new and therefore worth a try quite probably. Same goes for the ring perch I'd guess. Add a guardian into the mix and they might well be cautious for a while longer too.

First visitor was a blue tit, in under 3 minutes too, and lets face it they have no concept of normal anyway!:) I was most surprised by the Robin within the first hour. Great stuff.

Anyway as today has passed more and more sparrows are figuring out there's good stuff in there, and I think they also realise the squirrels are not getting in there at all, as some are now virtually teasing the squirrels by sneaking in for a snack while the big grey furry walking stomachs are trying to bite the top off, in vain. Makes a great change does all this!

It looks like it might just be game over for the Squiggs this time. They have had an extraordinarily good run of it, and at everyone else's expense, so they've absolutely no cause for complaint. If they could have found it in them to share, then it would have gone very much differently.

Once all the birds are happy I may put out a feeder just for the squiggs, but it will have to wait until I feel like it. They have really messed up their own PR with me for a little while though. They've put me through sheer hell for the last 3 months or so.

The fatter sparrows are mostly excluded at present, and in winter that might explain why they do finally get in too! It's the closest thing I have to a theory so far.:)

[aelish2003]

My alternative peanut feeder is the same idea as the guardian, and yes, the squirrels have given up on it. (Tho they still devour the table top food!) But today, greenfinches were in there as well as the usual great and blue tits., so I have enjoyed seeing that. So many babies around!! It's lovely. Perhaps we should pioneer the use of decoys to educate their tiny brains about how to get in?!!

[Lois]

I have guardians on all the seed feeders but not on the peanuts because that excludes the woodpeckers from feeding. We have bullfinches and some of them will go in but others hang around ouside as though it is not possible. We also have fat cake guardians and the robins, blue tits and great tits go in and eat the fat cake with no problem at all. All the tit family plus all other finches and sparrows eat from the guarded seed feeders and the squirrels still hang onto the peanut feeders!

[SquirrelEnemy]

I put up a CJ Guardian Seed Feeder about three weeks ago to replace a standard seed feeder, in hopes I could keep the squirrels out and reduce my bird seed bill. All my regular birds used it - blue tits, coal tits, sparrows, greenfinches, robins, even the starlings poked their heads in. None of the birds have any problem with the perches, but they do prefer the new ring perch, especially the robins.

But a couple of days ago I came home to find the squirrels had managed to get the top off, chewed through the plastic hanger bar, and eaten half the seed. There are teeth marks all round the metal top, so presumably it took some effort to get it off. The plastic hanger was in small pieces in with the seed - hope it swallowed some. I'll try again if I can get another plastic hanger bar, and make sure the top is really secure. I have other guardian seed and nut feeders that are really good. All the birds get used to them after a few days. I still leave the peanuts in an unprotected clinger nut feeder, as they are relatively cheap, and I get greater spotted woodpeckers on them like Lois.

[ExtraMedium]

Agreed, the idea of anything plastic where squirrels are concerned is a mistake just waiting to be revealed in my view, I just wish the thread on the base was a standard one so I could buy a proper bolt to use there, the plastic wing nut will be shown to be a vulnerability with vermin over time.

I wrote and asked the thread size and asked here, but the person who knows is not available so far. Best guess offered was that it is some sort of BSP plumbing size. We only went metric in 1971, how quaint.;)

You try going to a place like Screwfix with the intention of buying anything that isn't metric! Mostly you'll need luck with you.

A plastic bail is just asking for it! I went the other route and got metal Defenders and then added the regular Guardians. A little pricey of course, but you just can't afford to mess about when you got squirrels. They will exploit even the tiniest vulnerability.

Only mod I had to make was to wire the lids down so far, and yes they do eat the powder coating clean off the lids. I got one here that was out there for only 2 weeks before it was eaten down to bare metal on half the circumference already. If the weather holds I'll try and take some pics tomorrow.

Once you fix the lid properly, it's pretty much game over for them. They still have a go every day, but now they just don't get anywhere ultimately (so far). The hanger/bail joint could prove a weak spot still, but at least the bails are metal here.

I've got to come up with a proper way to fix the lids, as the wire is a temporary fix; it makes filling the things a tedious performance. Quite unacceptable in the long run. First time I wired it they started to undo that too!:mad:

Grey squirrels are the spawn of the devil. Despite that I don't wish them any ill, I just dislike them and their habit. 3-4 months ago I thought they were just quite cute, but now I know them, and in their true colours.

[SquirrelEnemy]

My metal Defenders have a plastic hanger bail just the same as the Guardian - how old are yours? I bought a separate RSPB wire guardian to put over this feeder, which covers the top as well. More fiddly to fill, but absolutely squirrelproof so far (2 months), except when they managed to get it off the hook and onto the ground (wired on now!). But the holes are smaller, and there isn't as much space inside as the CJ Guardian - the sides are straight rather than flared, and the birds took about 3 weeks to get used to it. The bigger birds still have problems.
The squirrels are a real challenge with bird feeders. They have done so well out of mine that we now have a whole family instead of just one ...

[ExtraMedium]

Had one silver seed and one red peanut - first was about June 5th or 6th this year, and the latter was a week after. Both had other issues, and have been replaced by CJ last Tuesday, both are green seed feeders now too. All four have metal bails, and are powder coated, but that comes off in seconds! I got CJ Guardians. All are small size. Not sure if that might be relevant or not.

I know the Guardian packs have some parts in plastic, to reduce cost, but I wanted no truck with plastic given the extreme aggression of my local vermin. Hence opting to bear the extra expense. (not like I had any choice though in reality).

If this had not worked I'd have had to give up bird feeding completely as non viable. Only other solution would have been culling, and I was in no hurry to go there. I've spent a lot of today mending some fences which they are now hell bent on destroying too. I have great trouble getting out so it was a thankless task.

I think it's their sheer numbers which is at the root of the problem, I've commonly seen 10 in our really rather small garden at once. Not seen anything like as much of them lately though!:) Now it's more like 3 at most and they don't often hang around all that much, just try it on, fail, try it on again in case, fail, pause for thought presumably because it's a novelty for them not to get fed, and they still can't quite believe it, then leave.

I'd guess the two main population groups must easily number a couple of hundred or more, in no more than half a Kilometre in either direction, at a conservative guess. That's an awful lot of greys.

[SquirrelEnemy]

CJ have replaced the plastic bail with a metal bail, which is holding up well so far, though there are more teeth marks in the top! One all ...

[ExtraMedium]

Good stuff, it'll just be a matter of time now till they get the message.

I don't see too many now, maybe 1-3 times a day at most and that's only one at a time now too, so they may be ones that have not seen it before.

Here's pic of one of my lids and that had been out about 7 days at most I would guess when we'd got down to bare metal.

(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t320/Extra_Medium/2007/07/webDSCF2268.jpg)