Hoping the hive mind of CC has an idea on this. I am moving soon, and my house will be vacant. I am on top of dealing with my insurance company, monitoring temperature, winterizing/water turnoff, regular checks on the property, etc. But one thing has me stumped. My house is cedar, and we have learned over the years that we better keep suet out for the woodpeckers, or they will put holes in the house in a hurry. At one point I stopped putting it out, hoping they would all go away. They were relentless on the siding until I got suet back out.
I am at a loss on how to keep the suet feeder filled, except maybe asking the handyman guy who I plan to ask to do walkthroughs to fill it. But it is a messy job to fill the suet feeder, and I was hoping to find maybe some pre-packaged with a string hanger or something ones that would be easy for him to deal with (vs trudge through the snowbanks to get the emty feeder, cut the package open, put the suet in the case, trudge back out, and clean up the mess – when we have no garbage service from the house). Looked online and did not find any such “easy” suet product. Any thoughts? Is there some approach I am not thinking of? I also Googled “snowbird services” in my area, as we have a lot of them. No one mentions feeding the birds.
And no teenagers or kids in nearby houses, and I don’t want to ask my neighbors to do this all winter long. Assuming my house doesn’t sell, of course.
My house is really big. I did look at deterrents a few years ago, but it is hard to use them on such a large house. Without a doubt this one was my favorite:
But those type of solutions aren’t too practical given the house size. An owl didn’t seem to faze them when we tried that, either.
I think they would go though those duet balls in a couple of weeks. But the cylinder looks more promising. At least my guy wouldn’t have to change it often.
Maybe you could have an extra feeder all loaded up so all he has to do is change out the feeder. I know I hate filling mine outside in the cold, icky weather.
My suggestion is check out www.rover.com. It is an online pet sitting “match” service. It works by geography, and while this is a unique sort of “pet sitting”, I think you could schedule the suet replacement like a dog walking service . The people are vetted and you can solicit a bunch of interest at once and then narrow to the person who seems best to you.
I have a double sided suet feeder so for me I would need a visit once a week. So maybe one visit = one dog walk through Rover.
Also, the suet I use is not messy . . .although there is packaging. I use C&S no melt suet dough (red hot pepper kind to keep rodents away). It is individually packed. I just remove the plastic outer layer. Carry it to the feeder. Flip and push the suet in using the packaging. I don’t even touch it. It doesn’t make any mess.
Whoever does it would need to take the packaging away with them, but it is minimal.
We have the same issue here with the woodpeckers and cedar siding. Sadly, even with the suet they seem to like to pound on the siding.
I think my neighbors have seen more more than once in the yard in my bathrobe throwing tennis balls at them… but it isn’t bad as long as the suet is there. Because of the deer and squirrels, we have a special feeder set up to foil them where the feeders are strung up sort of like a flagpole with a pulley system. So It would be hard to just fill the feeder on the fly… and the snow is at least knee deep most of the winter, too.
I think I am going to order two of the cylinder feeders, and four refills for it. I will hang both feeders full when I leave, and ask my guy to refill both when the last one is empty. Then he can let me know if i need to order more. Or maybe someone will just buy my house (intparent goes off to fantasize about this…).
Any thoughts? Is there some approach I am not thinking of? I also Googled “snowbird services” in my area, as we have a lot of them. No one mentions feeding the birds. 