Noah Duke

Joe Hallmark wrote:Yes we’ve had the same ones under the carport for years. Every so often we change them because they peel or dull etc. But they go right back on the same hangers. Nothing nest or flys under there ever anymore.

Thanks Joe. Appreciate it.

Anne Miller wrote:If that were my house I would install some metal flashing over the holes when I am sure the birdies/squirrels are away.

I would also put something smelly into the holes a few days before doing the flashing to make sure the critters are gone.

Maybe rosemary cutting because I have those.

Thanks Anne, the holes are full of acorns, no birds love there. I think I'll put in some spray foam then coat with metal. Thanks!

Noah

Joe Hallmark wrote:Your best bet is to scare them away. Any predator to them will look at your chickens as a much easier target. Hang windsocks , chimes, those shiny twirly things, etc.  I think one I use is bird be gone off Amazon. They are shiney circles with an eye. They work pretty good. You would need to mount them so they can spin to be effective.

You can hang fake owls and such but I’ve always had better luck scaring birds with shiny things hanging.  

Maybe others have more ideas. However don’t feel guilty to protect your home from damage. Nobody can afford 20-30k in damage these days…

I’m assuming you live where these are large woodpecker so it’s a problem for most everyone. Maybe your insurance people have preventative measures since ultimately it will cost them too.

Good luck

Thanks, I'll look into those, have you had success with them staying away longer than a few months?

bruce Fine wrote:why do woodpeckers peck? from what I know for 2 reasons to make hole for nest and to get at bugs to eat. from all the small little holes in picture kind of looks like woodpecker was feasting on something in your house.

Ya, the siding is 20 yr old mdf. It feels spongy and so they think it is rotten and has worms. Then when they don't find any they move over a bit and repeat.

Mike Haasl wrote:If they only peck holes above places they can perch, maybe you can work with that.

One thought is to get some metal trim or flashing of some sort and attach it to the wall to cover the 6" above the trim.  Tack it on and paint it to match the house.  Or find a way to cover the trim with something slippery that they can't grip onto (metal flashing of some sort).  Of the two ideas, I like the former...

I have some ideas on the same lines, I do wonder if they will just perch on the top of the flashing and peck there. Then there is the problem of putting something against the siding and trapping moisture in there. Not sure what would fit the bill to be honest.

I have a woodpecker problem. They are destroying my siding by standing on the trim, drilling holes, and then stashing acorns in the walls.  It happens on the east wall specifically. I would like to hear ideas about getting them to stop doing this!

We have about 5 families of woodpeckers that live in the pine trees around my home. I am fairly new to the property (8 months), and they mostly keep to the trees and the multiple standing dead trees we have left standing as habitat (away from frequented areas and structures).

Before we arrived on the property, the roof was destroyed by the woodpeckers and squirrels teaming up. The woodpeckers would stash acorns under the shingles, and the squirrels would rip the shingles off to get at the acorns... I just dropped a serious wad of cash on replacing the roof, and while they haven't gone after it yet, I fear it is next.

The house is a mobile home, with particle board siding. Re-siding the house would be in the $20,000 range.

My neighbors just shoot all the woodpeckers they see. I really am not ok with doing that for obvious reasons.

Anyone have ideas or experience with solving this in a more holistic way? Is there an ahole bird I can build a house for on my exterior wall to play bodyguard?

The chickens arw about 30 yards away from this wall, so an owl house is not a good plan.

I am in central CA, zone 8b, 2800 ft elevation, surrounded by ponderosa pines, black oak, and live oak.

paul wheaton wrote:The reason we put so much effort into setting up the earlybird stuff:

The top metric kickstarter uses to determine which projects get plastered all over their site is "popularity" which is measured by the number of backers. And if we can get 1000 backers in the first 3 hours, then the kickstarter algorithm treats that a bit like 8000 backers in the first 24 hours - so we get bumped to the top!

Paul,
You should put this info in the daily email or some other such communication. To be honest, I don't plan on buying the movie because I have 1000 kids and don't want to break out the time to watch it with the other things I need to get done... (i still need to finish the master gardening course!). I also didn't plan on supporting at $1, because i was not sure which of the rewards I already had. I have admittedly skipped supporting some of the other kickstarters because of the time/ repeat content concern. But on the other hand, I love the permies website and am totally willing to toss in a dollar to make your Kickstarter have more momentum.

So now I have clicked the notify button, and I will try to pledge as soon as I see it. Perhaps there are others like me who would be willing to do the same, no matter the 1$ reward list.

Best,
Noah

I highly recommend beeswax mixed with food grade mineral oil. Does not rot, smells amazing, food safe (this is my butcher block paste recipe). You get the food grade mineral oil from the medical area of most stores (got mine at Walmart) and you can source the beeswax from the internet. I got my beeswax from a bag of stubs that a local orthodox monistary gave me.
Melt the beeswax in a Mason jar with the microwave, add in some mineral oil. (Go online for various ratios). Let cool. If you want it thinner, go ahead and re melt and add more oil.

You can re apply as often as you like. Give a small Mason jar of it to whomever you make the items for as a go along gift. They will love it.

Only word of caution, if you put this over a different finish, it will need to be thorough stripped off if you were to do finish repair. That being said, the items you mentioned look better with some dings and dents of use.

My wife wants a mill to Crack our animal feed for our meat chickens, we feed between 10 and 30 lbs a day (depending on age) to the chickens. Does the speed increase dramatically as you increase the final particle size?

She also wants to grind flour for baking, will this mill do both do you think?

Great post! Is there any follow up with the 10 yr old trees?