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There are many different types of squirrel/bird feeders that you can put up in your yard to feed the squirrels and birds. I can only tell you about the ones that I personally use and ones that my friends use. I have found that some feeders that my friends use, my squirrels will not use. So you will have to try different ones and see what works for your yard.

NOTE ON PEANUTS: Make sure that you only feed the wild critters the RAW UNSALTED peanuts in the shell and not the salted ones that are shelled in a can. Some grocery stores sell the raw ones in a small bag. But if you are going to be feeding a lot of them, check around and see if anyone carries them in larger quantities.

You would be surprised the number of birds that visit the ground feeder, Doves, Juncos, White Throated Sparrows, Towhee and others. The birds that visit your ground feeder will differ depending on the part of the United States you are in.

I have my ground feeder placed where there are a lot of bushes (actually azaleas that are about 6 foot tall) that they can get to for cover if they need to. This is very important to the birds that they have shelter they can get to if they feel threatened.

Another type feeder that you can make yourself is out of a coconut shell. One of the Squirrel Connections has some feeders that she has made that are 8 years old now. She cuts out part of one side of the shell so that it is open and has room in the bottom to put a sunflower/peanut butter mixture for the winter months. A small hole is put in the high side of the shell and a hook is attached and it is hung from the tree on spikes. She says that the birds and squirrels both love them and so far have not been able to "steal" these feeders.

She also has a cafeteria type tray that has small holes drilled in it and is mounted on the side of the tree that she places apple pieces, grapes, raw peanuts and sunflower seeds on for everyone to enjoy.

I have seen the big suet cake feeders for squirrels but have never personally tried them. If anyone knows if squirrels actually eat this, please let me know and I will add your experience here.

You may wonder where I get all of my squirrel/bird feeders. I personally bought mine at Wal-Mart. Some wild bird centers also carry them as well as some Lawn and Garden places. You will just have to call around and see who carries them in your area.

When I go looking for a new feeder I try to look for a feeder that a bird cannot get stuck in. I had a feeder one time that a bird managed to get its head stuck in. While I was panicking, my husband got him loose and the bird was unharmed. The feeder that the bird got stuck in was the type that looks like a big lantern and had 6 or 8 sides to it. Needless to say when my husband got that bird free, I destroyed that feeder.

Someone else told me of another feeder that birds can get stuck in. There are feeders that are made out of plastic coated hardware cloth. They have a lid on the top and bottom and are sold as peanut feeders. The birds reach thru the holes in the hardware cloth and get the peanuts. She has had birds get stuck in that one also.

The feeders that I have for the birds now have a flip top and have plexiglass on each side and the seed is accessible from the bottom. Each side has a place for the birds and squirrels to sit and eat.

Just examine the feeders that you buy carefully to make sure that no one will get injured or stuck while eating. The feeders I have are made of wood. The wood ones seem to last longer than the plastic ones. The only part of these wood feeders I have had a problem with the squirrels chewing on is the ropes that they hang from. That was easily fixed by a trip to the hardware store and I bought about 5-6 feet of small link chain and an S hook. Just make sure you get chain that will fit thru the holes in the feeder where the rope was. They have not managed to chew those down.

Feeders should be taken down and cleaned once a month year round. The feeders that are nailed to the trees, I get on my ladder and clean them out. The nut boxes that I bought do not have holes in the bottom, but that is easily solved by taking a drill and drilling several small holes in the bottom to allow water to drain out. Even though they are covered, rain still gets in and the water needs a way to drain out the bottom.

To properly clean your feeders you should first use soap and water and scrub, scrub, scrub to get all of the food, feces, dirt and so forth off of the feeder. You should note that disinfectants are inactivated in the presence of organic matter so cleaning thoroughly before applying a disinfectant is very important.

There may be other disinfectants that you could use, but some may be more or less toxic than the bleach solution. But a 30% bleach solution works just fine and is safe to use when the feeders are rinsed properly following the application.

Now with the feeder thoroughly cleaned and rinsed, rinsed, and rinsed again you are ready to disinfect the feeder. Prepare a 30% bleach solution and fix enough that you can completely soak the feeder either by submerging the feeder in the solution or by placing the solution in a spray bottle and spraying the feeder. Make sure that you label this bottle as containing a bleach solution so that you will know in the future what this bottle contains. Make sure that you saturate all parts of the feeder. Allow the solution to remain on the feeder for 10 minutes. When you have done this, the most important part of all of this is to rinse, rinse and rinse. When you think you are finished, rinse 2 more times. Then leave your feeder sitting out in the sun and allow it to dry thoroughly before refilling and hanging the feeder back up. It is so important that you remove all traces of the bleach solution before hanging back up for the squirrels/birds to eat out of.

When the birds and squirrels eat the sunflower seeds, the hulls will fall on the ground. It is very important that these hulls be raked up periodically and that the ground underneath the feeders be kept clean. There are parasites that can get in these hulls during the wet/damp/humid days that we have in the spring and summer that the ground feeding birds can pick up and it will kill them if not caught in time. To keep this from happening, it is recommended that the hulls under the feeders be kept raked up.

The most important part of providing food is to provide a clean water source also. The birds do use the water for drinking as well as bathing so that is why providing clean water every day is essential.

I have 3 bird baths in my front yard and they are all made of concrete. One of these are up on a pedestal and the other 2 are on the ground and the ones on the ground get used the most. Bird baths should have fresh water placed in them every day and I scrub out my bird baths once a week. The Nebraska Squirrel Connection says that she not only changes out the water daily but she also weekly cleans out her bird baths by using a bleach solution and lets them soak. Of course you cannot leave the bird baths unattended while you are doing this as you do not want any of the wildlife to get into the water. Then she adds a chlorine neutralizer that is used in fish ponds and in fish tanks. One such brand is called "Anti-Chlor" and can be bought at any store that sells aquarium supplies or pond supplies. Use according to the directions on the bottle as it only takes a few drops per gallon of water. Then she rinses and rinses and rinses again. When the chlorine eradicater is added, there is no more chlorine to be dumped on the ground and therefore nothing is left behind that can harm the wildlife.

When buying a bird bath make sure that it is something that does not have a lot of design in the bottom of the bird bath, this makes it a lot easier to keep clean. I use a wire brush to scrub my bird baths with and rinse them out real good. If you keep them cleaned out each week, they are not hard to keep clean. I personally do not put any disinfectant in my bird baths. I just keep them cleaned out real well all the time and have not had any problems in the 10 years I have had the bird baths out.

For the winter time, it is a good idea to buy bird bath heaters. These keep the water from freezing and makes sure that the birds have access to water which they do need year round.

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