Anybody ever make a bear pole for a bird feeder?

Just when you think you have answered every question about bird feeders being invaded by squirrels, aggressive birds, and cats, along comes a bear of a question. How about some flexible poles like cane fishing poles? They would hold the feeders, but would not hold a climbing bear. You could coat the poles with Vasolene, motor oil, or anything else greasy but not edible. You could keep a long pole (like a broomstick) with a hook on the end to place and remove bird feeders hanging on hooks on the canes. Beat the bears!

Agree with greasing the pole - if they can't get up the pole, they'll hopefully give up - good luck!

I glued tacks on my pole to keep raccoons and opossums off. You might try something like nails (drill holes through pole) and caulk to keep nails in place (try to get rust-proof nails). Basically you are making a cactus like design. Just don't use too long a nail or they'll figure out how to grab and climb. Hope this helps

My girlfriend in Asheville had this problem too. Her bears have "schedules" and "routes" so they would just take the feeders in (all 12 of them), by noon every day. They recently attached poles to their house, but I have not seen it yet, nor sure of how they attached to her house. I will ask her though.

I bought a hand winch that boaters use to pull their boat on to a trailer. I then got a large screw in O hook. I put the screw in O hook about the thickness of a pencil, into the side of the house about 1" down from the eaves, making sure to go into a stud to be sturdy. My winch has 50' of 1/4" steel cable. I have a very large pine tree about 35' from my house. I cut one of the thick lower limbs off about 20' up, leaving 2' stub on the tree, then I drilled a hole into the branch stub and installed another O hook and put a 1/4" metal pulley on the hook. I screwed a few pieces of 2"X6"X12" one at a time to the tree so the handle of the winch could turn and mounted the winch to the last 2X6X12 and I then threaded the cable over the pulley then to the house and clipped the hook, which came on the winch, to the O hook on the house. When it is time to fill the feeders, I crank them down to a height that I can reach and fill the feeders, then I crank it up and leave a slight sag in the line so if the tree sways in the wind, it will not damage anything and the feeders are about 12' to 15' feet up in the air and I put snap clothes pins on each side of old metal shower curtain hooks that I hang the feeders from, to hold them in place. I have had this set up for about 15 years and not lost a bird feeder since.

Try wrapping some barb wire around it All the way up to the top. They might not be so attempted to climb. Not saying this will work for sure, but worth a try.