Bird seed.

Joey the lips · 12-01-2010 7:58pm #1

Hi Folks hopeing you can help me with a strange one.

I felt sorry for the wildlife in the snow last week went out and bought a large bag of wild bird seed. I kid you not. They wont eat it.

Can someone tell me why. I was thinking of frying it to give it a greasy taste.

I am stunned.

bogtreader · 12-01-2010 10:19pm

It usually takes a while for birds to become accustomed to a new food supply and it depends on where you have it close to a tree or bush where they can hide from predators.I have nuts,fatballs,mixed seed and niger seed i havent had that many this year had a few gold finches last year but none this year.But have had blackcap male and female and it depends on whats on offer in other peoples gardens just be patient

dollyk · 12-01-2010 10:22pm

because of the recession they are only eating stuff from lidl. really;)

Joey the lips · 12-01-2010 10:54pm

I have the seed on a table in the middle of the garden its there 4 days now. They eat the bread in 5min. In fact the love it. I was thinking of frying the seed as the grease might attract them

littlebug · 12-01-2010 11:08pm

Strange as it sounds "my" birds don't like the wild bird seed either. I've been feeding them for 3 years now and despite trying different types they will only eat the peanuts, fats and various other stuff ...even in this cold snap. Even when the peanuts are finished only a very occasional bird will go near the seeds. I don't want to experiment just now though and am just putting plenty of everything out.
Joey try the peanuts and you'll have plenty of visitors.

Dizzyblonde · 12-01-2010 11:40pm

It can take a while for the birds to get use to a new feeder, as others have said. If you want to though, you could buy a few blocks of Frytex in the supermarket, melt it in a pot and stir in a load of the seed to make your own bird cakes. Put it into bun tins, yoghurt pots etc to set. If you put a loop of twine into it while soft you'll have something to hang it up with.

Rancid · 12-01-2010 11:42pm

Another thought would be to mix the bird seed into melted lard, throw in a few sultanas as well and let it set into little "bird cakes" or even one large bird cake and put that on your bird table or on the ground.

I find since the weather got really cold the birds prefer fruit like apples and pears, sultanas and oatmeal or some of that bird cake.
The finches and redpols still love only the nyjer seed.

quinnthebin · 13-01-2010 12:01am

Joey the lips wrote: »

Hi Folks hopeing you can help me with a strange one.

I felt sorry for the wildlife in the snow last week went out and bought a large bag of wild bird seed. I kid you not. They wont eat it.

Can someone tell me why. I was thinking of frying it to give it a greasy taste.

I am stunned.

Problem is you obviously have conservative birds in your garden not the party animal type - as you said yourself you bought wild bird seed

Seriously though - similar to other posts we've had great success with blocks of lard heated in a large saucepan. We throw in (in quantity order - largest first) mixed bird seed, Porridge flakes, peanuts, sultanas, dried mealworms, and Nyger (thistle) seed . We put it into various containers (milk cartons, Take away trays, coconut halves etc) and when It cools down it sets semi-hard and we hang it from the trees etd around the garden. Goes down a treat with the birds and the thistle seeds attract quite a few goldfinches who add a great splash of colour to the gathering. Pear and apple halves attract loads of starlings, thrushes and blackbirds. These last for ages as the birds are too busy posturing and staking out their territory to have time to eat

Run_to_da_hills · 13-01-2010 10:58am

Plant them at the end of the garden.

Joey the lips · 13-01-2010 11:03am

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Plant them at the end of the garden.

Honestly now your just guessing. My garden is 60 ft long. half way is 30 ft. nearly the length of a 40ft truck. I have already stated they eat bread from this site so eating is not a problem.

Besides there is activity from the neighbours dog at the end of the garden so no i wont be doing this.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 13-01-2010 12:04pm

Pay no heed to Run_to_da_Hill's usual flippant comment.:rolleyes:

Put the seed where the birds usually feed and give them a few days to get used to it. If after that they don't take it I'd stop putting any out as it will go bad and/or attract vermin.

What kind of birds have you been getting up to now?

For God's sake don't fry it.:D

stevoman · 13-01-2010 12:16pm

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Plant them at the end of the garden.

again with the nonsensical waffle. its getting old now so leave it out please.

Joey the lips · 13-01-2010 12:28pm

Judson Odd Moth-eaten wrote: »

Pay no heed to Run_to_da_Hill's usual flippant comment.:rolleyes:

Put the seed where the birds usually feed and give them a few days to get used to it. If after that they don't take it I'd stop putting any out as it will go bad and/or attract vermin.

What kind of birds have you been getting up to now?

For God's sake don't fry it.:D

I have it where they usually feed. I have it on a garden table which gives them an elevated site so to speak(Not popular with the misses though)

I was thinking of disposing of it as its been out 5 days now. I will stick to bread.

I feckin spent 20 euro on this. That was my good will towards animals gesture.

I get all types of birds. I am not a big bird watcher I just love animals in general. I get a robin. I get magpies I get crows I get seagulls on stormy days coming in from the coast. I get the small birds. Sparrows I think.

I like them all crows and all.

My father always fed the birds in the cold spell. So its more nostelgia and a love of wildlife than a particular appreciation of a bird breed.

Why not fry it. My father use to do that with oats...They swarmed around it.

VERYinterested · 13-01-2010 12:49pm

Fair play to you for trying Joey. I stopped bothering with wild bird seed, usually a flock of Sparrows would just chuck it on the ground and then the pigeons would clear it up. But, I'm intrigued now and am going to get some of it and mix it with lard, sultanas and mealworms as the guys have suggested and see how it goes, as fat balls are quite expensive with the rate they are going through them at the moment.

E39MSport · 13-01-2010 12:52pm

Hi,

Are you putting bread out with it? Perhaps they're filling up on bread. Apparently it expands in the stomach. Have you tried seed alone?
I bet if you persist with the seed that they will change.

Regards,

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 13-01-2010 12:54pm

I really don't know what went wrong Joey. At least you tried. You're right to dispose of it now.

Any duck/swan ponds around where you could throw the left over seed?

Joey the lips · 13-01-2010 12:56pm

E39MSport wrote: »

Hi,

Are you putting bread out with it? Perhaps they're filling up on bread. Apparently it expands in the stomach. Have you tried seed alone?
I bet if you persist with the seed that they will change.

Regards,

I tried seed first... I tried the bread when the seed did not work. They came over for the bread and left the seed. I have a shotgun now and they are dead the fussy gits.

Kaldorn · 13-01-2010 1:59pm

you shot them,?? sure.... I left out seed too and they wont touch it..or the peanuts or the fat balls..i suspect the stray cat that hangs around is scaring them away or my neighbours vast supply of food on his massive bird table.

padi89 · 13-01-2010 2:03pm

I just stick to straight foods anymore, there is far too much waste with wild bird mixes in my garden, in fact the last time i bought it absolutely none was eaten.From what i have read a lot of the cheaper bird mixes have just been bulked up with seeds birds are less likely to eat, your better off picking up some peanuts or sunflower seeds (although the shells can cause a bit of a mess).I just buy in bulk from the UK and put out a measured amount each day, all gets eaten with no waste and i can work out how long each order will last.

madrabui · 15-01-2010 10:56am

padi89 wrote: »

I just stick to straight foods anymore, there is far too much waste with wild bird mixes in my garden, in fact the last time i bought it absolutely none was eaten.From what i have read a lot of the cheaper bird mixes have just been bulked up with seeds birds are less likely to eat, your better off picking up some peanuts or sunflower seeds (although the shells can cause a bit of a mess).I just buy in bulk from the UK and put out a measured amount each day, all gets eaten with no waste and i can work out how long each order will last.

Where do you buy from?

padi89 · 15-01-2010 5:21pm

madrabui wrote: »

Where do you buy from?

Haiths.

Kess73 · 15-01-2010 5:34pm

padi89 wrote: »

Haiths.

Used to use them. If you are buying in large amounts, then it might be useful to you to know that CJ Wildbird Foods now have an Irish website with a standard €8.99 postage fee regardless of weight, and if your order is more than €80 then there is no postage charge.

I find that their sunflower hearts are generally fresher than what I used to get at Haiths, and their delivery time is better too.

I tend to split my non live bird food purchases between CJ Wildbirdfoods and two local independent petshops that now give me decent discounts on a lot of what I get through me being a constant customer and them needing to keep customers in the current economic climate.

One of the two local petshops gives me a good price on tubs of live mealworm and waxworm, and sell them to me at a euro less a tub than the nest cheapest shop. So in return I make sure that they are my first call when I need any extras in a hurry and I make sure to mention them when anyone is looking for a petshop in my area.

Here is the link if you want to have a look at CJ

http://www.birdfood.ie/

padi89 · 15-01-2010 5:54pm

I am aware of CJ Wildlife too but for the amount i was buying in my last order Haiths were £14 cheaper including delivery. I don't know if i would ever need to order 80 euros worth. I buy enough to keep me going for 10-12 weeks any more and i would be worried about food going off. How long can you keep food for say a 20kg bag of sunflower hearts ?

Joey the lips · 15-01-2010 6:09pm

Interesting on the nuts delivery folks. Just an update have got a couple of robins and a couple of wildbirds. Picking up some lard and going to make hanging blocks. Will let you know how i get on....

Kess73 · 16-01-2010 1:46am

padi89 wrote: »

I am aware of CJ Wildlife too but for the amount i was buying in my last order Haiths were £14 cheaper including delivery. I don't know if i would ever need to order 80 euros worth. I buy enough to keep me going for 10-12 weeks any more and i would be worried about food going off. How long can you keep food for say a 20kg bag of sunflower hearts ?

Would you get 10-12 weeks from one 20kg of sunflower hearts?
I never have it last that long so would not be sure how long it would keep, but in proper sealed storage containers, I would imagine it should keep for that long and longer.

20kg of sunflower hearts is lasting somewhere between 3 to 4 weeks with me at present, and it only lasts that long because I am putting out about the same weight in other mixed seeds in the same period.

I go through about 3kg of nyger in a week, and about a kg in suet pellets. I also make my own suet cakes and use them to fill hollowed out cocunuts.

Last but not least is the live food that the blue, coal, and great tits, along with the robins and Blackie the blackbird, will sit happily in my hand and eat.

When the spring and summer roll around, my bird selection changes a bit, so the foods I feed then to drop a bit due to the large numbers in redpoll and other finches that I get in winter moving on to other pastures, along with the extra blackbirds, and thrushes I get in winter (this year having lots of fieldfare and redwings join the gang)

I have regulars all year round like the robins, wrens, blackcaps, goldcrests, regular blackbirds, starlings, three types of tit, greenfinch,goldfinch, sparrowhawks, various corvids, chaffinch, and a few others.

My sparrows come back every April though and they stay in large numbers until November each year,breeding in the sparrow terraces I have, then the redpoll come back in numbers equally as large as the departing house sparrows, and the cycle continues again.

padi89 · 16-01-2010 9:40am

I do indeed get 10-12 weeks from a 20kg bag of sunflower hearts because i put out a measured amount for each day.Initially i was just constantly topping up the feeders but i was getting a huge amount of birds that were eating me out of house and home and i just couldn't afford it.I live in the suburbs and have a small back garden so as much as i love having the birds come in i don't want them to take over either.I buy peanuts and suet local because i get them cheap, can you tell me where you get your live food?
Thank you.

Oliverdog · 26-01-2010 1:46pm

quinnthebin wrote: »

Pear and apple halves attract loads of starlings, thrushes and blackbirds. These last for ages as the birds are too busy posturing and staking out their territory to have time to eat

We have two feeding stations and this morning we found 13 blackbirds at first light waiting for us to fill them up. In this very cold weather they appear to have abandoned the territory marking until nesting time, and feed together quite amicably. Usually in our garden the blackbirds are not regular visitors but perhaps this year we'll have a few nests.

Jim Martin · 26-01-2010 4:38pm

Here's a puzzle!

I put up a feeding block cage in the recent cold spell and filled it with a home-made block made up of suet, bird seed & peanuts, it wasn't long before it had been opened and the contents disappeared. After another attempt, the cage and its contents have disappeared and the bird table from which it was hanging have been knocked over. I reckon the culprit must have been a fox or dog as the table was well anchored to prevent it being knocked over by strong winds!

doctor evil · 26-01-2010 5:40pm

What type of seeds are in bird seeds? I was in a supermarket earlier on and looked at a good sized bag of it. It had loads of info on different feeders but no list of seeds. There were loads of small rounds ones in it. Is there anywhere in Dublin that I can get some decent bird seed? I don't want to attract rodents so I'll probably be veering away from homemade fat balls.

I have bought from CJ wildlife over the net but would prefer to support an Irish business.

At the moment it is seed and whole peanuts. I will not be giving peanuts during the breeding season. What seed is best for summer? The feeder I have is the long cylinder with the ports and perch. I have a very old bird bath that gets good use.

It this suitable for the suet pellets?

So far I have had robins, blackbirds (regular one guards), blue tits, great tits (a first!), redwing, waxwing and at one time two goldfinches.

What is the best way to attract other finches and blackcaps and the like?

bogtreader · 26-01-2010 9:49pm

Niger seed is a good bet for blackcaps and finches i had my first goldfinches this morning since the summer even in the cold spell
none appeared they can be unpredictable

E39MSport · 27-01-2010 9:24am

Hi Kess73,

What's a Sparrow terrace?

Also, do you have much mess from all that feed?

I use black sunflower seeds and there's a fair mess under the feeders after a few days. I've had to get the power washer out to blow it into the ditch but that's just moving the problem and I imagine that there are plenty of rodents about but I haven't seen any lately. I'm keen to reduce the mess but at the sam time broaden the type of feeds that I use and in turn attract more species.

I like the CJ site btw, thanks for that. Bit pricey though but at least I don't have to plan a trip to Dundrum. Might go for the sunflower hearts this time. Still have 20Kg of (about a month) of black left. Pity they don't sell the gaurded worm feeders any longer. Looks good.

Weather is supposed to turn south again next week .......

Kess73 wrote: »

Would you get 10-12 weeks from one 20kg of sunflower hearts?
I never have it last that long so would not be sure how long it would keep, but in proper sealed storage containers, I would imagine it should keep for that long and longer.

20kg of sunflower hearts is lasting somewhere between 3 to 4 weeks with me at present, and it only lasts that long because I am putting out about the same weight in other mixed seeds in the same period.

I go through about 3kg of nyger in a week, and about a kg in suet pellets. I also make my own suet cakes and use them to fill hollowed out cocunuts.

Last but not least is the live food that the blue, coal, and great tits, along with the robins and Blackie the blackbird, will sit happily in my hand and eat.

When the spring and summer roll around, my bird selection changes a bit, so the foods I feed then to drop a bit due to the large numbers in redpoll and other finches that I get in winter moving on to other pastures, along with the extra blackbirds, and thrushes I get in winter (this year having lots of fieldfare and redwings join the gang)

I have regulars all year round like the robins, wrens, blackcaps, goldcrests, regular blackbirds, starlings, three types of tit, greenfinch,goldfinch, sparrowhawks, various corvids, chaffinch, and a few others.

My sparrows come back every April though and they stay in large numbers until November each year,breeding in the sparrow terraces I have, then the redpoll come back in numbers equally as large as the departing house sparrows, and the cycle continues again.

Bird seed.

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