Bear Proof Bird Feeder - Survived the BIG Bear

Many of you have heard my stories of the  bears wreaking the bird feeders.  Then I built the “Bear Proof Bird Feeder”.  It has been up for 4 years and the bears never got a single seed. Until...

Here are the hanging feeders

The picture above shows the swing arm with the hanging feeders, you can also see the squirrel dome.  The arm is 8 feet off the deck.  The feeds hang out over the edge of the deck, 25 feet to the ground!! Last week during NAB Olive call in a panic, "there is a BIG bear on the deck and he's breaking the feeders.  The whole deck and house are shaking".

I clamped a piece of wood to the support

Sure enough one of the feeders was missing. I first noticed the arm was closer to the trees, than when we left for NAB.

Then it was the OH MY GOD moment.  The bear had twisted the steel uni-strut.

I clamped a piece of wood to the side to show how much the bear had twisted the vertical support.  That piece of wood WAS parallel to the railing of the deck!!! It's a good 20 degrees of twist!!

I found the missing feeder and it's parts and snapped them back together.  All is better!!

The Bear Proof Bird Feeder - WORKS!

(scroll down to the pictures of the SMALL bear)