Solar powered wildlife feeders.

Calvin Robinson

Calvin Robinson

Moderator Christian Forum
I have five wildlife feeders that I keep running all winter long,these,On Time, brand feeders are good but they require 10, AA batteries and they must be changed every four to six weeks,so...
I designd and built these solar power supplies,using a Plano shot shell box,rechargeable 12volt battery,12 volt solar panel and flexible stainless steel conduit,1/2" romex connectors and black RTV rubber. This is the second generation of these and I'm sure they will give me trouble free service for years to come as the first generation did.
I built the first prototype about six years ago,it worked well so I built four more the year after that. I'm still using the original solar panels and batteries,the only thing new is the ammo box enclosures and the flexible conduit.
These two in the photos are two new ones I built for one of my neighbors.
 

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Calvin,
What are these for? Are you feeding wildlife or are these used as lures for hunting? Just curious? We have several Humming Bird feeders but they are a little smaller than those.
 
rhinoknives said:
Calvin,
What are these for? Are you feeding wildlife or are these used as lures for hunting? Just curious? We have several Humming Bird feeders but they are a little smaller than those.
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Laurence,
Both,we feed the deer,turkeys,squirrel,coons,possums,chipmunks and on and on and on,with corn in these feeders.
During deer season the corn keeps the does hanging around,we take a few of them for meat then when the bucks start rutting they come looking for the does and we shoot a few bucks for meat and antlers. My wife and I eat about four or five deer a year,also some friends and relatives come hunting and take a few deer as well. I also plant food plots for the wildlife to have green stuff to munch on in in the winter. Come see me and I'll take you deer hunting!
 
They look good Calvin. I have a 55 gal. steel feeder at my place, I had problems with the squirrels eating holes right thru the sides of any feeders that were poly. I tried greasing the legs but that only worked for a little while.
 
bladegrinder said:
They look good Calvin. I have a 55 gal. steel feeder at my place, I had problems with the squirrels eating holes right thru the sides of any feeders that were poly. I tried greasing the legs but that only worked for a little while.
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Steve
I've had squirrels chew holes in the lids of my plastic drums and have made galvanized sheet metal lids for them. I've never had them chew through the sides,that's not to say they won't in the future.
The problem with the steel drum lids is they will rust through over time,I've had to make galvanized lids for my two steel drum feeders.
I've found that wheel bearing grease smeared on the legs works best to keep squirrels and raccoons from climbing them and robbing the feeders.
I wish I had video of the deer that stand on their back legs and steal corn with their tongue and turkeys that jump up and peck the spinners to make a few kernels of corn fall down. I had a bear knock one down and pull the lid off one time,I found the feeder about 50 yards from where it was supposed to be. And I have to stake the legs in place to stop the hogs from knocking thel legs out from under the feeders.
 
Here's a picture of my last poly feeder, the squirrels ate two holes right thru it, I think it was flying squirrels.



these hogs have all been killed, by me and the locales, a hunting lease nearby thought it would be a good idea to set them loose..but they searched out everybody else's feeders which led to their demise. this was the biggest one I got, he was 270# ...it was a lot of knife work to clean this critter.

 
Good for you Steve!
The hogs on my place come and go. They got so bad we had to fence in our chufa patches a few years ago but not now. I'm sure they will be back one day. They sure are good eating but do a lot of damage.
 
Right, my thoughts on wild hogs are they taste great and fun to kill as long as their on someone else's property.
One month till bow season!
 
Justin Presson said:
If I had my own place I would hit you up for plans but I run a camera on some public land and i don't leave it out long and bounce around so the thieves don't take it.
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The reason I wanted a solar powered supply for my trail cam was because it has a big appetite for batteries and I'm off the grid at my cabin so no way to recharge the remote power supplies that you can get for your trail cam. I bought a remote power supply made for trail cameras and converted it to solar so it should stay charged all the time. I had to do some rewiring of the control panel in the power supply and also added the flexible stainless steel conduit to keep the critters from chewing up my wire. The only reason I bought the remote trail cam power supply,instead of building my own,was because it was on sale at Academy for little more than the price of the 12volt rechargeable battery that was in it,I will take a photo of it later and add it here.
HAPPY HUNTING YALL!
 
Here's the one I rigged up for my trail camera.
Don't get a crick in your neck looking at it.:biggrin:
 

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Calvin Robinson said:
Laurence,
Both,we feed the deer,turkeys,squirrel,coons,possums,chipmunks and on and on and on,with corn in these feeders.
During deer season the corn keeps the does hanging around,we take a few of them for meat then when the bucks start rutting they come looking for the does and we shoot a few bucks for meat and antlers. My wife and I eat about four or five deer a year,also some friends and relatives come hunting and take a few deer as well. I also plant food plots for the wildlife to have green stuff to munch on in in the winter. Come see me and I'll take you deer hunting!
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Calvin,
Thank you kindly for the invite. I love to eat Venison and wild Hog and use to deep sea fish quite a bit. Wahoo and Ahi Tuna! YUM!

I've never hunted on land. I'm not sure my wife would ever talk to me again if she new I took a deer. She will eat Venison, Its just one of those things about some women? I love the other 99 plus percent of her. She is a very kind lady and calls me to swat a bug! She just couldn't intentionally hurt anything.

Maybe someday I go to Florida for a Knife Grind in?:shush:
 
Let me know if you when you want to come. We can go fishing instead of hunting.
As far as killing goes I'll borrow a line from Penny Baxter in The Yearling "Hit's a hard law, but it's the law. 'Kill or go hongry'".


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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