![]() ![]() (In the photo above, I am using a bit of scrap wood and a mallet to compact the soil around the pole.) Force the Bird Feeder Pole Deep in the GroundĪnother option is to extend the pole deeper into the ground. This approach can actually make a surprising difference. So use your foot or a mallet or a stone or whatever to compact the soil around the pole’s foot support. Instead, you need to work on firming up the ground AROUND the base of the pole. I did find that if the horizontal top of a shepherd’s staff’s H-shaped base is sunk at least a bit into the ground (and so is surrounded on three sides by soil) it tends to keep straighter than a pole whose horizontal piece is just laying across the soil surface.īut several years ago, I was talking with one of the folks at my local bird store (Mother Natures) and learned that the trick with poles is not to keep pounding on the base of the pole when it tilts. I used to try and deal with arrant poles by holding the feeder pole straight and banging on the pole’s foot to press it more firmly into the ground. It is when the ground is saturated with water and the soil loosens up that trees and poles tend to shift and want to lean.Ĭompacting the Soil Around Bird Feeder Pole Compacting the Soil Around the Pole’s Base They also stay in place when the ground is frozen and/or snow-covered. When the weather is dry and the soil is dry, my poles tend to stay put. A decent proportion of the yard slopes down that way to some degree, so it is also the way water flows when there is a heavy rain. Trees tend to fall in that direction too. Even weight-balanced poles want to lean that way. Interestingly (to me anyway), anything in my yard that leans tends to do it in the same direction (east). My yard’s soil mix leans strongly toward sand, so keeping feeder poles straight is a challenge. In my yard, this is the biggest factor in whether a pole leans. ![]() It is instead the ground around the pole that yields. If you have a good quality sturdy metal pole and are not putting more weight on it than it can handle, then the pole itself should not bend. My Backyard Leans Toward the Back Center Right of This Photo The Ground Around the Pole Can Allow It to Lean (This also makes adding a barrel pole baffle down over the top of the pole possible.) Sometimes arranging the hooks directly opposite each other can be helpful in distributing the weight more evenly. This particular type of Erva shepherd’s staff pole has top arms that come off and can be adjusted to point in various directions. (Note: As you can see in the above photo, I added an extra optional arm to the dual shepherds hook pole above to let me hang three upside-down suet feeders from it.) So for example, the pole might hold two similarly-sized tube feeders evenly spaced, or it might hold two identical upside-down suet feeders. My shepherd’s hook poles are dual-top poles (with two curved arms at the top.) When hanging feeders from these hooks, I try to keep the weight fairly even to discourage pole tilting. If you purchase a shepherd’s hook pole, plunge it into the ground and then hang a single heavy feeder on its arm, the feeder is likely to over-balance the pole and there is a decent chance it will develop a tilt. Three Identical Suet Feeders Distribute the Weight Equally on the Pole Weight of Bird Feeders on the Pole Can Make Pole Lean Shepherd’s Staff Pole
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