Feeding Wild Birds. How much?

Hintza

I have in the past year or so started to feed the wild birds quite seriously. I work from home and set up my feeders outside my office window and they do give me a great deal of pleasure.

But things are slow just now business wise and I am wondering whether to cut them down.

After a couple of quiet months the little beggars have now arrived with all their young and are eating me out of house and home. They are currently eating over a pound of Bucktons Premium Wild Bird Seed with a couple of handfuls of Sunflower Seeds (they would probably eat deouble that if I gave them the opportunity) and can get through about 10 inches in the Niger feeder.

How much food do you guys put out on a daily basis?

A point to note is I feed the Bucktons Premium because with the others I have tried there can be quite a lot of wastage (primarily wheat).

YorkiePud_3

3 bags of Bill Oddie wild bird seed will last me 7 days but I also put out Webbox dog food (chopped into small cubes - great moisture content and so soft that nothing can choke on it), sultanas chopped up small, (but don't put them out if you have a dog - can make them really poorly!), red leicester cheese cubed into very small pieces and bread chopped up into small pieces smeared with peanut butter (the smooth peanut butter that doesn't have any bits in so no fear of choking!) ... I also buy the suet pellets from Wilkinsons and break them up into even smaller pieces.

I have giant fat balls hung from a bird feeder in the garden too and on warm or hot days I chop up Del Monte fruit cocktail (in its own juice) and put that out for the birds and from 6am on a morning to about 9pm at night I have birds in my garden without any break at all ... it can get noisy but it is lovely to see them all ... *S*

I get dunnocks, robins (3 at the moment and they aren't fighting), magpies, starlings, blackbirds, greenfinch, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, waxwing now and then, goldfinches, collared doves, normal pigeons, wood pigeons, long tailed tits ... there is always birdsong in the tree in the garden and it is lovely to see the babies growing daily, losing their fluffy feathers, then becoming stroppy "teenagers" and finally adults.

I have tried all different seeds, all different foods, but these are the ones that work for my West Yorkshire birds ... picky lot they are! As I say tho, the garden is never empty ... even if you just put one thing out that I have mentioned, put the Webbox out ... there is no mess left and they will love it!! I absolutely guarantee your garden will be full of birds for it! It's 49p a "sausage" in Morrisons.

mrcol1000

I'd be careful about putting out too much food as it can attract unwanted pests especially if the food is on the ground. Also if your feeding birds excessively and if it starts causing problems for your neighbours then the council can take action agasint you. I would not recommend more than a couple of bird feeders or one bird table. Its all very nice having birds in your garden but unless you live isolated too much feeding will cause problems for people around the area which is unfair on them.
Personally we have a box feeder which has a lip and the birds sit on the lip eating the seeds. There is very little wastage. We also have a squirrel who comes once a day and hangs upside down from the top of the feeder and eats the food. We fill the box up maybe once a week and 1kg bag of food lasts 2-3 weeks.
But yeah its lovely to see the birds but if your doing it too much then its just going to end in tears.

meeps

We have fed the birds more this year as there aren't squirrels around to nab everything- I limit it to a pack of 6 fat balls for 49p from netto, and that lasts a week or two, but its mostly robins and blue tits. we shoo away the magpies and they can't get under the tree, and we put crusts down for a pair of pigeons but only when we see them.
There is one mouse that comes at dusk for anything on the floor so I am keeping an eye out for anything bigger as I don't want rats.

And yes, all the regulars have got names... lol.

YorkiePud_3

mrcol1000 wrote: »

I'd be careful about putting out too much food as it can attract unwanted pests especially if the food is on the ground. Also if your feeding birds excessively and if it starts causing problems for your neighbours then the council can take action agasint you. I would not recommend more than a couple of bird feeders or one bird table. Its all very nice having birds in your garden but unless you live isolated too much feeding will cause problems for people around the area which is unfair on them.

Couldn't agree with you more ... I put all my food up on the corrugated shed roof at the bottom of my garden ... my neighbours on both sides feed the birds too but they both feed on the ground. Both of them have had rats coming into the garden but I haven't.
If there is anything left on my shed roof each day I go remove it (stepladder and a brush job!) but I can't recall the last time I had to do that.
I get so many birds in the garden all day long so have struck the right balance in the amount of food getting eaten and what I put out.

Btw the council cannot do a thing .... if you own your house then it is classed as being on your own property. They cannot force you to stop putting food out for the birds, nor can the Environmental Health (I phoned both when my neighbours on either side were getting rats in their gardens ... I stopped putting food out in mine even though I wasn't getting any rats in and both the council and EH said nothing could be done about the neighbours feeding on the floor if they owned their properties, which they do, so I may as well keep feeding. They said unless the neighbours stopped putting food out and we all put poison down it wouldn't affect the rat problem. One neighbour keeps shooting them with an air rifle every so often and that seems to keep them down though .. I haven't heard either one say they have had rats for a while now.)

YorkiePud_3

meeps wrote: »

We have fed the birds more this year as there aren't squirrels around to nab everything- I limit it to a pack of 6 fat balls for 49p from netto, and that lasts a week or two, but its mostly robins and blue tits. we shoo away the magpies and they can't get under the tree, and we put crusts down for a pair of pigeons but only when we see them.
There is one mouse that comes at dusk for anything on the floor so I am keeping an eye out for anything bigger as I don't want rats.

And yes, all the regulars have got names... lol.

Oh wow ... I buy the giant fat balls (you can just about get your hand round one of them at a stretch!) ... and my birds eat 6 a week ... *LOL* nobody believes me when I tell them how many birds I get in the garden till they see me having to go buy them again!

I'm keeping an eye on a baby magpie who seems to have taken up residence in the garden ... it was out with a parent bird on Saturday and after one day of "instruction" looks to have been pushed out into the big wide world alone now. It's fine though, just a bit lost and scared I guess so it keeps shouting mournfully ... poor thing! Won't be long til it finds its feet I shouldn't think.

elliebellie

YorkiePud wrote: »

Oh wow ... I buy the giant fat balls (you can just about get your hand round one of them at a stretch!) ... and my birds eat 6 a week ... *LOL* nobody believes me when I tell them how many birds I get in the garden till they see me having to go buy them again!

I'm keeping an eye on a baby magpie who seems to have taken up residence in the garden ... it was out with a parent bird on Saturday and after one day of "instruction" looks to have been pushed out into the big wide world alone now. It's fine though, just a bit lost and scared I guess so it keeps shouting mournfully ... poor thing! Won't be long til it finds its feet I shouldn't think.

I can certainly believe it, i live in w. yorks and the birds round here are treating the bird feeders like an all u can eat buffet - they never stop, except when they so tired and fat they go to sleep, shouldn't complain as it's lovely to have them in the garden:D

My worry is that i'm off on holiday soon and the food i put out (3 seed feeders) will last about 4 hours, then no food for 2 weeks, should i start cutting them down now or will they source other food once it runs out. I live near allotments, so am assuming they'll be plenty there to keep them happy till I get back

Cheers
Elliebellie

Hintza

elliebellie wrote: »

My worry is that i'm off on holiday soon and the food i put out (3 seed feeders) will last about 4 hours, then no food for 2 weeks, should i start cutting them down now or will they source other food once it runs out. I live near allotments, so am assuming they'll be plenty there to keep them happy till I get back

Cheers
Elliebellie

This is one of my concerns. Should we put enough down to give them food for half the day and leave them to forage for the rest of the day?

If we put it down as an all you can eat buffet are we doing them a disservice in the long run? Especially if this years chicks have never had to fend for themselves?

mrcol1000

YorkiePud wrote: »

Couldn't agree with you more ... I put all my food up on the corrugated shed roof at the bottom of my garden ... my neighbours on both sides feed the birds too but they both feed on the ground. Both of them have had rats coming into the garden but I haven't.
If there is anything left on my shed roof each day I go remove it (stepladder and a brush job!) but I can't recall the last time I had to do that.
I get so many birds in the garden all day long so have struck the right balance in the amount of food getting eaten and what I put out.

Btw the council cannot do a thing .... if you own your house then it is classed as being on your own property. They cannot force you to stop putting food out for the birds, nor can the Environmental Health (I phoned both when my neighbours on either side were getting rats in their gardens ... I stopped putting food out in mine even though I wasn't getting any rats in and both the council and EH said nothing could be done about the neighbours feeding on the floor if they owned their properties, which they do, so I may as well keep feeding. They said unless the neighbours stopped putting food out and we all put poison down it wouldn't affect the rat problem. One neighbour keeps shooting them with an air rifle every so often and that seems to keep them down though .. I haven't heard either one say they have had rats for a while now.)

Actually they can if you put food on the ground. Your be prosecuted for allowing (or not taking steps to stop) rats to be attracted to the area. The only thing is where its on your land you can not be prosecuted for littering (as you have given yourself permission to drop food waste on the ground). If you put food waste out on the road or other peoples property then you could be prosecuted for littering.
As for putting up bird feeders and fat balls. If you put up so many that it was causing a nusiance for your neighbours you could be prosecuted for that but it would be a brave council that didn't care about what people thought about it (or Kirklees Council as its better known).

I am suprised you were told nothing could be done. I guess if it was seed then its not something the council would want to get involved in but if it was bread or other food then thats something they can take action on. Probably just a friendly warning letter.

sweetserendipity

YorkiePud wrote: »

Bill Oddie wild bird seed

I've bought that in Poundland before & there was never any waste. I buy a big bag of 'superior' mixed seed from the local petshop now (it has dried mealworms in it, yummy!!) & I usually make that last a week (think it costs £2.28??) Put it in a feeder & also a bit on the grass for the dunnocks & blackbirds.

I also put out half-coconut feeders (filled with suet & other bits) get them from Home Bargains for about 69p. I always hang them from a tree now, after spotting a nicely rounded rat feasting on one I'd put on the grass for the blackbirds!! _pale_

I throw a handful of Tesco Value mixed dried fruit out every day as well, the blackbirds love that, but I have never chopped it up though.

SailorSam

If i can i try to put little but often, so as the birds will not get to dependant and look elsewhere and learn to find their own wild food.
I don't put food out of a night, because i've thought this may attract vermin.
At one time there seemed to be hoards of pigeons, not the nice ones, but the flying rats, so i put an old glass light fitting above the bird feeder, leaving a small space below it. The smaller birds can get in to feed but it keeps the pigeons out.