A bird feeder could be suspended in the air by powerful magnetic fields. You could put magnets on nearby trees or fences to create the field, and then have the feeder suspended in space between the magnets. That way, it would be impossible for squirrels to get to the food.
The only problems I can see is that a heavy bird might perch the feeder and tilt it, messing up the magnetic field and causing the feeder to crash to the ground. Also, a very powerful magnetic field near the feeder might confuse the bird's sense of navigation.-- Rubi, Nov 29 2003 Build your own magnetic levitation device: http://www.arttec.net/Levitation/Kit.html [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004] (?) Yankee Flipper. http://www.yankeefl...com/droll/index.cfmSmaller magnets, but the flying squirrels make up for it. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004] (?) This may be the way to go. http://paranormal.a...://jnaudin.free.fr/ [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 04 2004] (?) daylight robbery! http://www.squirrels.org/video.html [po, Oct 04 2004] If it worked, this would be a very costly birdfeeder.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 29 2003 On the subject of expensive feeders, I might as well repost the Yankee Flipper [link].-- Amos Kito, Nov 29 2003 make sure you're not wearing a steel belt buckle or watch...or pace maker. I think it would be cheaper, easier, and safer to hire ex-convicts or mercenaries to stand guard over your existing bird feader with air rifles to pump the squirells full of lead if they make any attempt to approach the feader.-- gabe, Nov 29 2003 BACK, YOU DEMON SQUIRRELS!!! (rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a)!!! ITS FOR THE BIRDS ONLY!!!-- Rubi, Nov 29 2003 (Aside from wondering why one would want to allocate so much electricity to sustain the magnetic fields well enough to keep the feeder levitating and away from squirrels...the cost/benefit ratio of burning coal to make the environment safer for birds is squirrelly.) (Unless, of course, these are installed behind the power gym mental institution, where all the people who have been driven crazy by squirrels spend their days generating electricity on exer-bikes while being entertained by videos of the Yankee Flipper in action)Nonetheless, all you need to ensure stability is to add an adequate gyroscope. (You'd also have to give the feeder itself an east and west as it were, or else you'd end up with a spinning suspended feeder.)-- roby, Nov 29 2003 Oh, man - Rods - that is peerless.-- thumbwax, Nov 30 2003 why not just use lighter than air gas balloons to suspend thousands of feeders that drift around the world feeding birds everywhere, then when they wash up on shore you just refill the balloon and away it goes-- whatastrangeperson, Nov 30 2003 wow, at last a practical use for superconductors.-- neilp, Nov 30 2003 p.s. sp. "Sorry squirrels" surely?-- neilp, Nov 30 2003 ...which may include male humans.-- Detly, Nov 30 2003 Sounds like something Wile E. might purchase from Acme.-- waugsqueke, Nov 30 2003 You forgot that squirrels can still jump onto any bird feeder as long as it is: (a) within 3 meters of the ground, or (b) within 20 meters of any house, tree, telephone pole, or other high platform.
So, I'm afraid levitating the feeder wouldn't do it. However, it might be fun to tag the squirrels with magnetic metal of the same polar alignment as that of the feeder, and NOW watch them try to get to it!-- phundug, Dec 01 2003 //the same polar alignment as that of the feeder//
Or, for even more fun, the opposite alignment.-- Detly, Dec 01 2003 Would putting small steel ball bearings in the feed be bad? hehehe. And of course, all the dogs stuck to the magnet by thier collars would eat the birds, further getting stuck. Ohhhh the mayhem. And then there is all of the asorted cheap stainless steel jewlry you could pawn off...-- thelambs, Dec 01 2003 FYI, [blissmiss], it is Canada Geese.
And //applause// to UnaBubba for the visual image.-- GenYus, Dec 11 2003 [GenYus], The Canada Goose is "Branta canadensis". If [blissmiss] was talking only about them, then you would maybe have a point.
However, that goose and any other geese from Canada CAN be correctly called "Canadian Geese".-- zigness, Mar 20 2004 Since I first read this one... I've been trying to magnetically suspend fishbones... just... about... there... GOT IT!-- zigness, Apr 06 2004 Is this just really really old comments or do people actually still come to this website. I thought of taking a magnet and attaching it to my nuts to try to relieve some of the pain assocuated with carrying around a package as large as mine. I mean first off magnets help with relieving pain right? Well then why not attach some positive magnets to your shoes and then some more positive magnets to my nuts and the positive force field would help to push the weight back up towards my body rather than a positive and negative one which would pull harder. The force field would quite similar to the one seen in the Return of the Apes when Qeen Crobust tries to take over planet Zenon. -Really, I'm not that big of a jack ass, but really is this webiste for morons only or what? Please tell me.-- KE7JRH, Jan 23 2007 It would be simpler to suspend the birdfeeder between several trees on horizontal stainless steel piano wires or strong monofilament nylon. If the feeder were several yards away from the supporting trees it would not be possible for the squirrels to navigate the horizontal wires or filaments. But, if, like me, you have squirrel sympathies, you have to devise a squirrel feeder immune from birds.-- JSand, Jan 23 2007 random, halfbakery