Here in the lakes region of New Hampshire we have fed the birds year round until last summer. Our area has too many bear that are being habituated to bird feeders and garbage bags left out. We used to put the feeders out only from about 8:00am to dusk from April 1 to December 1, otherwise out all the time while they hibernate. Not so this year, as they came out early and became quite brazen and roamed all times of day without any regard for humans. I will be making and installing a 3" diameter thick wall pipe concreted in the ground 4' deep, with feeders above their reach. if the squirrels and doves, and etc. don't eat what falls to the ground enough I will add a system to catch it all. There are two commercial versions we have seen on the market for this but are very expensive to buy so I'll make my own.
Here in the lakes region of New Hampshire we have fed the birds year round until last summer. Our area has too many bear that are being habituated to bird feeders and garbage bags left out. We used to put the feeders out only from about 8:00am to dusk from April 1 to December 1, otherwise out all the time while they hibernate. Not so this year, as they came out early and became quite brazen and roamed all times of day without any regard for humans. I will be making and installing a 3" diameter thick wall pipe concreted in the ground 4' deep, with feeders above their reach. if the squirrels and doves, and etc. don't eat what falls to the ground enough I will add a system to catch it all. There are two commercial versions we have seen on the market for this but are very expensive to buy so I'll make my own.