Bird feeders

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Oh!

We get no squirrels here even though we love very close to woodlands where there are red squirrels in abundance.

I spend a small fortune on massive sacks of mealworms. They adore them. And apparently humans can eat them now as well! I shan't be bothering.

Sometimes nuts are left, suet balls and mealworms

Who'd have thought garden birds would be fussy!

timetogo2016, I'm not sure about WD40, but I use Vaseline on the pole - to stop snails raiding the feeders,

I buy sacks of quality food from Peckamix and I'm on the lookout for easy-clean feeders.

It's not the fluffy tailed squirrels I've problems with, it's the long skinny tailed dirty stinky creature I've a problem with. I've a damn rat that appears at times! It goes after the bits that drop from the feeders and I can't cope at all. I've have my RSPB birdwatch at the end of the month and at the minute I can't even put the feeders out to bring my feathered friends to my garden.

tattynan

I love feeding the birds and watching them in the garden. I find that the fat balls and peanuts never get eaten and end up going mouldy and being thrown away. The birds in my garden like mealworms and the blackberry fat pellets and I get through bags of them. Use a mixed seed as well. I go to Pound stretcher and the Range for bird supplies as they are a good price.

It must be a matter of where you live.
The garden birds here ( goldfinches/ greenfinches, nuthatches
Bluetits/ ( and all tits?) especially the long tailed ones/ robins etc all go nuts ....pardon the pun for peanuts and fatballs.We also have two feeders just for sunflower hearts as all birds seem to love those.
Rooks and Jackdaws also love fatballs unfortunately, but the squirrels prefer the seed to anything else.

Thanks for the link fennel. I was about to buy a couple more.

All mine hang from Hawthorne an Acer trees where we sit out. I get through quite a lot of food. Mole Valley Farmers are the best suppliers for me. 150 fat balls for £11.99. Woodpeckers love them.

timetogo2016 I read that WD40 oil is poisonous to squirrels and can give them a nasty death. We tried all sorts of food oils but they just ate it

We started to mix cayenne pepper with seed at one point, having read they don't like it - then saw pictures of what the pepper can do to the inside of their mouth and the soft parts of their paws. There are reports of squirrels biting their paws off to stop the pain.

Sorry, a bit off thread here.

Female blackcap on feeder.
Yes great to watch the birds [Witzend]. Used to be a few field mice but think the foxes had them as a snack.

What a brilliant feeding station, rascal.
We do get great spotted woodpeckers here - they’re very keen on the fat balls.
As for mice, more than once after dark we’ve seen a little mouse hop from the hedge to the feeder, but we don’t begrudge him a share. It’s probably a woodmouse, since we’ve seen them before.

I just replace the bird feeders when they get filthy, as they’re awkward to clean thoroughly. I buy squirrel proof seed feeders from Wilkos or Robert Dyas for £5.

Woodpecker on bird feeder here.

I always used to put just fat balls out in the feeders but this year I tried peanuts as well in a separate feeder. The little blighters love the peanuts and leave the fat balls alone. As I bought a big tub of fat balls I'm going to keep the peanuts back until they've eaten more of the fat balls. That'll larn 'em!
Like others, I've noticed ground feeders, particularly robins and blackbirds, have learned to cling on and eat from the feeders as well. Luckily the pigeons have not cottoned on to this and the squirrels are too busy digging up the nuts from our nut tree to bother with the bird food.

I hang mine on the washing line that i don`t use.
Spray the metal pole with WD40 the squirrels slip on it so no pinching the food.
Fun to watch though.

Nell8 I think we have very crafty squirrels .

We once hung a small feeder right at the end of a thin branch, thinking the squirrels wouldn't be able to make it to the end. We then watched as the squirrels ran halfway along the branch, one after another, leapt off, making the branch jerk and the seeds jump out of the feeder. The squirrels then sat under the feeder and ate the seeds.

We tried putting coconut oil up the pole so the squirrels wouldn't be able to reach the top. It was hilarious watching the squirrels reach halfway up and sliding down, looking really mystified. They then realised they could eat the oil and took it in turns sliding down the pole and licking their hands.

Our feeders now stand in the middle of the lawn and the adult squirrels don't bother with them.

Nuthatch on the bird feeders here.

SuzannahM Hmmm ... seems your squirrels are craftier than mine. Are your feeders hanging where the little blighters can stretch across from a branch, fence etc? Ours are hanging from hooks suspended from poles planted in the ground away from any other vertical access routes. So far they haven't found shinning up the pole works. (I can tolerate starlings as they're entertaining and becoming scarcer round here.) Ah well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our uninventive squirrels stay that way...

I agree with Aggie, it's a pain in the neck but it's really important to clean them properly for the sake of the birds.

Nell8 we have two of those. Unfortunately the squirrels used to just shake the seeds out of them, jump to the ground and eat them. Even the starlings have worked out how to hang on them in a way that lets them get the seeds.

I used to fill bird feeders till I saw a large mouse climb up and enjoy !
But what I was going to say is about how important it is to clean the feeders thoroughly before refilling , they can kill the birds with diseases harboured in the mess

I spent a good half hour yesterday cleaning out all the bird feeders. They were quite revolting. I only put peanuts & sunflower seeds in them. I put fat balls on bird table.
I have to keep everything up high as we have 4 cats!

We get through masses of fat balls and sunflower hearts - delivered in bulk by Brinvale. Dried mealworms added recently.

We have squirrel proof feeders - they also need to be parakeet proof - masses of them around here. We used to have a peanut feeder for them, but their beaks are so strong, they’d rip the wires and empty the feeder in an hour.

The ground feeders pick up a lot of crumbs from the feeders, but during very cold weather I scatter dry porridge and suet for them. Plus dried fruit if I have any - still quite a bit left over from Christmas puds etc.

That is on my list of things to do. Clean all bird feeders. But they are starving at the moment and I’m reluctant to take them in to clean.

They smell yeasty I think.

Our best investment for feeding the birds is the Living with Birds Jacobi Jayne Squirrel Buster Classic which we fill with sunflower hearts. It has totally defeated the squirrels and pigeons. However they and the ground feeding birds can still benefit when messy finches scatter bits everywhere. The feeder isn't cheap but when I think of all the useless ones we've tried in the past it's well worth it. Cleaning gets easier when you get the hang of it. There are various accesories you can add e.g. hooks, poles www.livingwithbirds.com

We use mainly sunflower hearts. They’re more expensive than sunflower seeds but at least you don’t end up with the husks left lying around.

I love feeding the birds and watching them in the garden. I find that the fat balls and peanuts never get eaten and end up going mouldy and being thrown away. The birds in my garden like mealworms and the blackberry fat pellets and I get through bags of them. Use a mixed seed as well. I go to Pound stretcher and the Range for bird supplies as they are a good price.