Protecting feeders-- how would you do it?

[Schmitty]

 My feeders are getting hammered by badgers..Any recommendations on how to protect?

[Walker570]

Some very strong weld mesh with a piece of angle iron along the bottom to stop them getting under. They will get through sheep wire.   High enough to stop them getting over obviously..

[scarecrow243]

it would need the top closed off as well as badgers can climb fences at some hight 

[Schmitty]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

Obviously need to allow access for the pheasants but could I put a low level electric fence round it too or is that a no no?

[Jim Neal]

I feel your pain.  I'm over-run with stripeys on my patch and they've had me designing and re-designing all sorts of ways to keep them off my feeders.  I must be on my Mk.5 version of anti-badger fence by now!  I too get plenty of trail cam footage when I'm trying to solve problems.   I have to say though I've got no recorded evidence of them climbing fences!

Something VERY STURDY made of metal with an access hole no wider than 90 millimetres will keep badgers out and let pheasants in (maybe your biggest cock birds would have to breathe in).  Whatever it is will need to be quite well sunk in to the ground as well because they'll try to dig under.

This is my latest design of defence:

 

Sadly I'm going to have to scrap it and do something even more robust - unbelievably, after a couple of years of total success the badgers have now started getting in.  They dig down to expose the bottom of the corrugated sheet, even though it is hammered in about 4 inches, then bend it back!

This video shows footage of a very bemused badger on the first night that I installed this fence around a feeder which was getting constantly plundered.  Shame this design is now starting to fail me, the badgers must be either getting more persistent, more desperate or more hungry!

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Jim Neal

[Schmitty]

Really like the design of the images and surprised at how determined they are to get in.

With a 2 wire electric fence around it (solar or battery powered) would it keep them far enough away but still allow the pheasants in?

 

 

Roe are also an issue but I can deal with them!!

[Essex Keeper]

I use ibc tank frames work a treat 

[Walker570]

Yes, was about to say IBC frames would work. I have had them nose under but never dig.  Also I found by putting the fence further away, just a foot to eighteen inches would then allow pheasants to hop up on the fence and down to the feeder.  I have pheasants regularly fly up onto my treerat flip top feeders, so hopping over a fence is no problem.for them.  A badger will literally walk throug normal reinforcing mesh, it needs to be down to about 4 inches square to be sure.  Two wire IBCs split at a corner then opened up a bit to surround a feeder would be spot on and with a bit of ingenuity you could make a door on one side for access..

[Jim Neal]

On 29/02/2020 at 22:48, Schmitty said:

With a 2 wire electric fence around it (solar or battery powered) would it keep them far enough away but still allow the pheasants in?

Possibly but I doubt it.  We tried electric fencing to keep them off a game cover a few years ago but they got past it no problem, and that was with a strand at about 3 inches, one at about 10 and another a bit higher!

But more to the the point, have you got the money and the time to put an electric fence round EVERY feeder on your shoot?!  You'd need a battery and energiser for each one and then spend your entire life swapping and recharging batteries - or spending even more money on solar panel chargers.  Way too much work and a mind boggling cost.  The way I see it is you've got to get an effective fence design built and then you don't have to worry about it any more.  I'm nearly there but it's been a long road!

IBC frames are great for keeping the deer off, albeit they will still nudge a lightweight feeder and leave it like the leaning tower of Pisa.  They are portable as well which is a big bonus.  That's where the positives end for me.  Badgers will just walk straight through them.  Also if you want one for every feeder on your shoot that's a lot of IBCs you need to find.  It's also a lot of waste plastic sitting around which you'll have to either get rid of in some way or find a use for.  I have about 6 of them cut up and used as storage bins (they need drainage holes drilling in them)

I've badger-proofed several of my IBC frames (this is difficult to describe but simple if you see a photo of it, which I don't have!).  What I've done is wrapped them in weldmesh all the way around.  I've cut a few vertical sections of the weldmesh which leaves a gap too wide, so then I adjust its position relative to the adjacent IBC vertical to give me approximately a 90mm gap.  I make one of these access slots in one or two places on each side of the frame.  It takes bloody ages but so far pretty badger-proof.  However, last season on my busiest game cover I had 2 of these frames in use amongst a load of other feeders with little or no protection - the ones in the IBC frames didn't seem to get any use at all from the birds, only a tiny bit of grain gone every time I checked and that could have been the rats looking at all the holes up there!

That's the big problem with fencing off your feeders.  It restricts the free flow of birds to and from the feeder.  However it's a far better option than endless tons of wasted wheat and countless snapped springs.  Last season I had WAY more birds than usual - I only have about 1 feeder for every 100 birds we released so I relied very heavily on hand feeding into spread straw.  I have to say although it's very time consuming chucking it into straw is much more effective in holding birds than using feeders and the bonus is badgers don't bother with it!

Badgers drive me nuts.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Jim Neal

[clay shooter]

Try using a firelighter rub the feeder with it all round...... .badgers hate the smell. ..They  attack the feeders   as they smell the feed inside a rubbing of firelighter smells dangerous to them ...works well here they leave em alone  now ..they contain  paraffin but dont use actual paraffin. On the feeder or  leave any of it n the floor can kill if eaten by birds/etc...you can buy them for a few pence..try a B&M store in town or supermarket.

[Jim Neal]

I don't doubt the theory - I had problems with rats chewing through the tubes connecting my auto drinkers to the lines, until I rubbed them with a petrol-soaked rag (the tubes, not the rats).  However I wonder how long the effect would last?  OK if you've got a few feeders but not if you've got 50 plus!  You'd constantly be on firelighter-rubbing duty and never get anything else done!

I'd suggest it also depends on the scale of your badger population.  My part of the world is crawling with them, maybe if there's just the odd one about it wouldn't really be a big nuisance.  Physically preventing them from getting to the feeder is the only way I've found.

I did have a play around with those slotted feed tubes this season.  However, the same as with Wright feeders, the bloke who designed them must have based them on using peas instead of wheat.  The stuff just rains out of them and a badger will empty a feeder overnight.  I tried filling the tubes with large gravel so it took a lot of effort to actually get wheat to fall through, and had mixed results.  If you don't get your stone size exactly right you either stop anything at all coming out or it makes no difference.  I went back to fences, particularly as the deer then started knocking them over!

Oh and don't get me started on those spikes you fit to the springs!  Spring snapped by badgers, feeder knocked over by deer, waste of time, money and wheat!

Edited March 8, 2020 by Jim Neal

[clay shooter]

Yes it will depend on the scale of your badger.. Vermin problem but i would think  it likely that it is local to only a few nearby of the sets

Try now before release starts beause by then the vermin will have learned that the feeders are a no go. We tried petrol and it stank too strong.firelighter is not a bad.it works.. If you want to  Do all your feeders ... Time neded.. The smell will last months. We do ours in june and the smell of lighter is still there ar end of season .. If you rub them good...DO NOT leave any pieces about...ok

Edited March 16, 2020 by clay shooter

[Jim Neal]

4 hours ago, clay shooter said:

Yes it will depend on the scale of your badger.. Vermin problem but i would think  it likely that it is local to only a few nearby of the sets

Try now before release starts beause by then the vermin will have learned that the feeders are a no go. We tried petrol and it stank too strong.firelighter is not a bad.it works.. If you want to  Do all your feeders ... Time neded.. The smell will last months. We do ours in june and the smell of lighter is still there ar end of season .. If you rub them good...DO NOT leave any pieces about...ok

You would think wrong!  Badgers travel a long way on a night out, they get all over the place.  Put it this way: on my patch there isn't a distance between known setts and feeders greater than, let's say, 800yds.... that's just a little trot out at night for a badger.  All the feeders get interfered with if unprotected, and even the ones I've defended against them have eventually succumbed like a castle under seige for months.  But yes the ones nearest the setts do get a greater proportion of interference.  However, whether a feeder gets annihilated once or seven times in a week doesn't really matter, the fact that a badger can screw your life up at all is just a pain in the butt!

The only sure-fire way to stop them wasting your grain for you is to effectively fence the feeders off.  Costly in time initially but more cost-effective than "reducing" grain wastage.  But that all depends on what kind of keeper/shoot you are.  For me we're a working man's DIY shoot on a shoestring budget so every little helps.  If you're a paid up keeper and your boss has got a bottomless pit of wheat then sure, why not fit wrights/feedacones/pans/whatever and just accept you're feeding the badgers and deer to just avoid the problem of replacing springs?!  It's a sham to call anything badger or deer "proof" though.

[clay shooter]

just rub them as said with the firelighter..go on try..its only 59p per pack at B&M stores in town ...10per pack

one lighter per feeder..workng men can aford that cost...can they..try it..

[Jim Neal]

I'd need 3 packs so that's £1.77, cost is getting a bit steep if you ask me.... 😂

 

I'll humour you though and give it a go

Edited March 17, 2020 by Jim Neal

[clay shooter]

you charge members enough so £1.77 will not hurt your pocket just think .... No more stolen feed

NOW THATS. Worth pounds.   Init  .....me old cocker ... me old pal.....as we say here in gods own county .. yorkshire.

[Neil B]

A good way to keep them off is to build a platform/table at least three foot high with plenty of over hang. Then secure the feeder/hopper to the top. The pheasants soon learn to flutter on to the platform to feed. It also keeps rats off. But it is trickier filling them. Hope this helps. 

[Walker570]

7 hours ago, Neil B said:

A good way to keep them off is to build a platform/table at least three foot high with plenty of over hang. Then secure the feeder/hopper to the top. The pheasants soon learn to flutter on to the platform to feed. It also keeps rats off. But it is trickier filling them. Hope this helps. 

Now that is a good idea. Pheasants are pretty smart at finding feed above ground as many find my flip top squirrel feeders a challenge and one learned to lift the lid. Plenty of cheap pallets available for the tabel top and four tanalised half rounds for support.   Just cut the 45s if that is what you use in half to reduce the height you have to reach to top up the hoppers and slots /trays in the drum sides would suffice rather than springs.