Squirrel Table - ADV – CraftingFolk

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Section: Wildlife

"Every autumn I watch them scrambling. Most people have no idea what a British squirrel goes through just to survive the winter." Why a 69-year-old furniture maker from Suffolk has spent six winters building the same handmade feeding table

Bernard "Bernie" Moss is not a wildlife biologist, not a conservationist, not a naturalist with letters after his name. He's a furniture maker. For over 20 years, the 69-year-old has been working wood in his small workshop at the edge of the Dedham Vale in Suffolk. Six winters ago, he started building something he'd never made before. A tiny handmade table — built for the squirrels in his garden, and the brutal winter they face every year without most people noticing.

what a british squirrel actually faces every winter — and why it keeps bernie at his workbench

60%

decline in the UK hedgehog population since the 1950s — from an estimated 36 million to fewer than 900,000 today

30%

more calories a squirrel burns in winter just to maintain body temperature — small animals lose heat rapidly in the cold

50%

of cached food stores are lost — buried under frozen ground, snow, or simply forgotten. Squirrels don't find everything they hide

8 Hrs

of daylight in December — half the foraging time of summer, with predators like hawks and foxes more visible against bare winter trees

A British squirrel in winter is not the carefree creature you see in summer. It is working harder than at any other point in the year — burning more energy, finding less food, foraging in shorter daylight, on frozen ground, in full view of every predator in the area.

Most people watch them in summer — chasing each other up oak trees, raiding bird feeders, burying nuts with that focused, urgent energy — and assume they're fine. Thriving, even. What they don't see is what happens in January. The scrambling. The desperate return trips to buried caches that have frozen solid. The weight loss. The ones that don't make it to spring.

Bernie has been watching it happen for six years. From his workshop window, and from a bench in the garden where he and his wife Jean sit on winter afternoons with a thermos of tea, watching the oak tree at the bottom of the garden.

"Jean noticed it first. She said: look at him, he's been to that same spot four times and come back with nothing. The ground had frozen solid overnight. He was burning energy he didn't have trying to reach food he couldn't get to. That's when I went back to the workshop."

For six winters, he's been building the same handmade feeding table — and watching what happens when squirrels have a reliable source of food through the cold months.

The problem isn't just the cold. It's everything at once. Frozen ground hiding buried caches. Shorter days leaving less time to forage. Bare winter trees offering no cover from hawks circling overhead. Water sources freezing solid. And a body burning through its fat reserves faster than it can replace them.

"People think squirrels hibernate. They don't — not properly. They go torpid for short periods, but they wake up regularly and need to eat. In a bad winter, with frozen ground and depleted stores, that waking up becomes a crisis every single time. A reliable food source at the right height, in a place they feel safe — that changes the calculation completely."

Bernie has been filling his handmade table every morning through winter for six years. "I watch them come. The same ones, every day. They learn it's there. They stop scrambling. They sit down and eat properly. That sounds like not much. But for an animal burning everything it has just to stay warm, it's the difference between making it and not."

"most garden squirrel feeders miss the point entirely"

Bernie doesn't sugarcoat it. "I looked at what was available before I started building. Either it's a cage strapped to a tree — which works fine, but a squirrel can't sit properly to eat, they're hanging off it — or it's a decorative box that's too enclosed, too dark, and makes a squirrel feel trapped rather than safe. Nobody had thought about it from the squirrel's perspective."

What he's observed over six winters of watching:

🐿️ Height is everything — squirrels won't approach food on open ground in winter. At fence or branch height, with escape routes above and below, they'll sit and stay.

🐿️ Squirrels need to sit to eat properly — they hold food in both paws and turn it. A hanging feeder forces them to cling on. A flat table with bench perches is how they eat when they feel safe.

🐿️ Dish depth determines whether they use it — too deep and they can't reach the bottom. Too shallow and the food rolls off. Wide, shallow, and recessed is what works.

🐿️ Untreated wood only — squirrels gnaw the feeder. Varnish or preservative means they're ingesting chemicals with every meal. Natural pine weathers to grey and smells like the garden.

🐿️ The right food makes the real difference — whole nuts in shell, sunflower seeds, whole corn. High-fat, calorie-dense. Fill the dish right and the same squirrels come back every morning.

"I'm not criticising people who put food out for squirrels. I'm saying: if you're going to do it, do it in a way that actually works. Six winters of watching has taught me what that looks like."

Inside Bernie's workshop in Dedham Vale, Suffolk. This is where he builds through winter — when the garden is quiet and the squirrels are at their hardest stretch.

what bernie's squirrel table actually needs to do

Bernie has spent six winters experimenting. Adjusting the height, the dish dimensions, the bench width, the mounting. "You have to watch the squirrels. They tell you immediately what's wrong. If they approach and back off, something's not right. If they sit and stay, you've got it."

What makes Bernie's squirrel table different:

Picnic table form with two bench perches — squirrels sit properly, hold food in both paws, eat at a natural angle. Not clinging to a hanging feeder. Not hunched over a ground dish. Sitting, the way squirrels actually eat when they feel safe.

Central recessed dish — calibrated depth and diameter — wide enough to hold a full day's feed, shallow enough for a squirrel to reach every corner without leaning. Recessed into the table surface so it doesn't tip. Took two winters to settle on the right dimensions.

Fence or tree mounting — the right height for winter feeding — designed to be nailed to a fence post or tree branch at squirrel eye level. Off the ground, with clear sightlines in multiple directions. The position that makes a squirrel feel safe enough to sit and stay.

Untreated natural pine — safe to gnaw, weathers naturally — no varnish, no preservative, no chemical smell. Squirrels will gnaw the edges — that's normal and fine. Within one season the wood weathers to grey and looks like it was always there.

Solid joinery — built to last through multiple winters — not a flat-pack kit, not stapled together. Proper wood joinery that holds through frost, rain, and the weight of a squirrel landing hard. Bernie's oldest table has been outside for six winters without needing repair.

Easy to clean and refill — the central dish lifts out for cleaning. Refill with whole nuts, sunflower seeds, or corn. Two minutes every morning. That's all it takes to give the squirrels in your garden a reliable food source through the hardest months.

Central recessed dish, bench perches on both sides, natural pine — every detail has a reason.

discover bernie's squirrel table

"jean says i should make them year round. i tell her: that's not how good wood work gets done."

Bernie makes one batch a year — November through February, when the workshop is warm from the log burner and the garden is at its quietest. He doesn't rush them. Each table is built, sanded, and checked before it leaves the workshop. When the batch is done, it's done.

"I'm a furniture maker. I've spent thirty years understanding that the best work happens when you're not hurrying. I build through winter because that's when my head is right for it. In spring and summer I'm in the garden, watching. In autumn I'm making notes. In winter I build. That rhythm is what makes them right."

"The squirrels in our garden have been coming to the table every morning since October. Jean keeps a record — which ones, how long they stay, what they take. We've got six regulars now. We know them by their markings. When spring comes and the food gets easier, they still come — out of habit, or preference, or something. I don't fully know why. But they come."

His son Matthew, who works in Ipswich, noticed the reaction at last year's village Christmas fair — a queue forming at Bernie's table before the doors had been open twenty minutes.

The winter batch is what's here now. Bernie won't start building again until November. When this stock is gone, the next tables won't be ready until early 2027.

UPDATE: Bernie finished this winter's batch in February and won't be building again until November. To make sure every last table finds a garden before the squirrels need them most, he's letting the remaining stock go at 50% OFF. When this batch is gone, the next ones won't be ready until early 2027.

See what's still available here >>

what customers are saying:

4.8

Over 5,900 sets sold — rated exclusively by verified buyers

Karen P.

April 17, 2026

Verified Customer

"I've been putting food out for squirrels for years — just scattering it on the ground. Half of it got taken by pigeons, the squirrels never seemed settled. Put Bernie's table on the fence post in October and within a week we had two regulars coming every morning. They sit on the little benches and eat properly. I've spent more time watching them this winter than I have the television. Genuinely lovely."

33

Jodie C.

April 19, 2026

Verified Customer

"Bought one for my mum in Norfolk — she's 74 and spends a lot of time watching the garden from her kitchen window. She rang me on Christmas Eve to say she'd counted four different squirrels using it that morning. She was more excited about that than the presents. The craftsmanship is obvious — solid natural wood, nothing flimsy. You can tell it was made by someone who actually thought about what they were building."

12

Mark T.

April 24, 2026

Verified Customer

"The wood is beautiful — you can see immediately this was hand-built, not knocked out of a factory. One small thing: the central dish on mine had a very slight variation in the grain pattern compared to the photo — but honestly that's just solid wood being solid wood. Nailed it to the apple tree in November, had our first visitor within three days. Already ordered a second one as a gift."

9

Bernie in his garden in Dedham Vale — where he's been watching squirrels and refining the table every winter for six years.

still time before autumn

Squirrels begin their serious winter preparations from late August. That's when the caching intensifies — burying food across the territory, building fat reserves, identifying reliable food sources they'll return to through the cold months.

If you put a table out now, the squirrels in your garden have time to find it, get comfortable with it, and add it to their winter routine — before the scrambling begins.

Bernie's tip: "Nail it to a fence post or branch at about chest height — somewhere with a clear approach from above and a bush nearby for cover. Fill the dish with whole hazelnuts or walnuts in shell, and a handful of sunflower seeds. Check it every morning. Within a week you'll know if you've placed it right — they'll tell you."

It's a small thing. But for the squirrels in your garden, a reliable food source through winter changes everything.

Bernie's tables are available exclusively through this online store, where his son Matthew manages the shop. You may find similar-looking feeders elsewhere, but they have nothing to do with Bernie's six winters of observation, adjustment, and careful building.

shop the last squirrel table

100% Money-Back Guarantee

Put the table in your garden. Fill the dish. Watch who comes. If you're not impressed — by the quality, the craft, or the results — send it back for a full refund. No questions asked. No hassle. Bernie has spent six years building these for the squirrels in his garden. The guarantee reflects that kind of care.

get your squirrel table now

Each squirrel feeding table is a handcrafted piece in untreated natural pine. Small variations in grain are natural — that's solid wood, not a flaw. Includes central removable feeding dish. Suitable for fence posts, tree branches, and garden walls. Recommended fill: whole nuts in shell, sunflower seeds, whole corn. Free UK delivery. Delivery in 3–5 working days.