I have spent most of today working on a new hedgecam feeder to go on the top of my hedge outside my office. This feeding platform is great in the winter as I get visitors to this rather exposed site that do not like coming into the garden. The hedge top is level with an upstairs window… my office window… so I get excellent views of it whilst I work. The downside is that it is a bit of a challenge to climb up the bank to fill it up and even harder to get the whole hedgecam set-up up there. For this reason, I created the set-up in sections, making it easier to get it up there.
To improve the camera views from this feeder, I have installed a clear plastic roof so that the daytime images will be brighter and clearer. To improve the night time viewing, I bought a small 12V floodlight that runs off of the power supply to the camera. This means no additional wiring. I am pretty confident that the voles, mice and rats will soon get used to this area being lit, and will then reward my live cam viewers with some excellent images!
A full account of how I created this new set-up, take a look at this page on my website.
You may have noticed some apples on this set-up. I am known for my ‘KreATivE’ use of kitchen utensils and implements… sieves, whisks,,, and this new addition is a jacket potato skewer… just a few pounds from ebay. When I saw it I thought it would be brilliant for apples and, possibly, fat balls.
I am going to try another one of these hanging up, but this one was going to be mounted onto the base of the new hedgecam so I made a little platform for it. I used some metal cable clips to secure it onto the platform so it would stand up on its own.
The apples went on fine, but my fat balls were too crumbly and would not skewer onto the spike. I may try making some of my own. Until then, we’ll see how these apples are greeted by my visitors. Be sure to watch my live cameras. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the night-time visitors to get used to the light. As I type, the wood mice have appeared, but they are on ‘grab ‘n’ go mode at the moment. I don’t think it will be long!