How do I keep squirrels from climbing on my bird feeder?

We live in a second floor apartment and the bird feeder hangs off our balcony railing, so it's hard for us to prevent them from climbing. They scare the birds away and are breaking my birdfeeders. Any help would be appreciated.How do I keep squirrels from climbing on my bird feeder?
Another trick that works really well as some of these mentioned is to use a caulking gun and put grease on the rail. They hate to have their feet greased or you can use roofing tar in the caulking gun. Either should work just fine for you. That's how I solved the same problem.How do I keep squirrels from climbing on my bird feeder?
a nice well sighted 22 caliber should do the trick
There are several methods along with squirrel proof bird feeders shown on this site.





http://www.pecanworld.com/SQUIRREL.htm
I had the same problem, here is i handle it, i got a peace of 1/2'; pvc pipe about 18'; long,and cut it across every 1'; ,and threaded the peaces over the rope i was using to hang the feeder, squirrels were afraid to go down it ,because it was unstable, hope this helps.
There have been MANY studies on this subject, and in every case, the squirrels won. Crafty indeed are these pesky varmints! You can try placing a speaker near your feeder, and when you see a squirrel nearby, blast him with some hard rock. WARNING...this will only work a few times, once they figure out it doesn't hurt them, they'll be right back to their old tricks. Good luck!!!
Ships have conical shape things on their ropes to keep rats from climbing aboard. Something similar could be used against the squirrels. We have a vertical post with birdfeeder at the top. Squirrels used to climb the pole until I put an empty apple juice can on the pole. They can't reach around enough of the can to get a proper grip. Our other bird feeder is on the clothesline. We keep it about 15 feet from the house and about 12 feet from the ground. They haven't figured a way to climb to that one yet.





The apple juice can didn't stop a black bear, he just pushed the whole thing down. It also sat underneath the clothesline feeder and ate seeds from the ground...
attach a frisbee in between squirrel path and feeder, they should slide right off, or the 22 cal. probably will work as well