Feeding the Birds

HariboJunkie

I make fat cakes with the fat from Sunday's roast every week. Just pop it in a yoghurt pot when it is cool and turn it out when it's completely solid.
They also love peanut butter which I coat on to pine cones, dip in seeds and hang from the trees.
Blackbirds in particular love apples and pears but you need to slice them in half so they can hollow out the fruit.

jennyjelly

HariboJunkie wrote: »

They also love peanut butter which I coat on to pine cones, dip in seeds and hang from the trees.

What a fantastic idea! I've got some pine cones in a bowl on the hearth so I'm going to 'borrow' a couple and have a go.

We have seed feeders which they empty at an alarming rate, a fat ball holder which comes a close second, and a peanut feeder which is always the last to be emptied.

I'd recommend looking in little local hardware shops for seed mix as some buy in bulk and bag it up themselves - ours is selling a 5kg bag for £2.40 - the best I've found prepacked anywhere is 1.8kg for £1.99 so that's quite a saving. Well worth having a look in your area - I only spotted it by chance and wouldn't have thought to go looking specially.

Woofles

The bad news is I haven't got any yoghurt pots the good news is I've got some Cadburys Individual Hot Chocolate Sponge Pudding :T in just the right sized pot. If that's no a good excuse to have one I don't know what is.

I bought some thistle seed, but its not going down well, might try mixing with fat and some other goodies. Thanks for the tip.

kemo_2002

i give them the rind of my bacon, they seem to like it1:j

allydowd

The blue tits and chaffinches love the seeds from melons.

Penelope_Penguin

As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the existing thread to give you more ideas

Penny. x

Primrose

We make up large quantities of fatty oats, using the whole grain oats and surplus fat from the grill pan supplemented with melted dripping. In cold frosty weather all the birds love it and handfuls can disappear within minutes. In winter we find the birds are actually lining up in the nearby trees waiting for us to come down to breakfast and put their food out. They fly down before we've had time to get back into the house. We put some on the bird table and a small quantity on the ground for the ground feeders. We also use bird seed, and the ready husked sunflower seeds are very popular. We used to have the bird table on the patio but found seeds blew off into and nearby border and kept sprouting so I was for ever pulling up bird weed seeds. Now we have it on the lawn so it doesn't matter if the seeds sprout as eventually the lawn mower will cut them all down.

Nicoll

I buy a box of 100 fat balls from pets at home for 19.99, they aren't in nets but I use a squirrel proof feeder anyway otherwise we get 4 or 5 squirrels at a time eating everything! I usually put some nuts and seeds on floor as well so the squirrels get something. My dogs chase the squirrels but so far have failed to get within about 10ft of one....squirrels are so quick but at least my fat dogs get some exercise trying to catch them.

Woofles

At great personal sacrifice I had a chocolate pud last night and now have a pud shaped fat ball setting in the fridge.

Wilkinsons do a tub of 50 for £6.99

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/Wild-Bird/Best-Friend-Fat-Balls-x-50/invt/0259596?htxt=PsAGyAqy%2FDSGVBgOHPBfATKVETOKIWHcwqoICuDrG%2FxTcDPfxIrYzUvEu76RzzM6wutKTeo9AOCB%0AtDs76aYYKg%3D%3D

May have to get one of those when the weather turns really cold and they go through 3 a day if not more, there's only so many chocolate puds you can eat.:rotfl:

laurel7172

Fat balls usually seem to come in those horrid plastic nets that are so dangerous for wildlife. It's a total pain removing the nets and shredding them.

What I do is melt a block of lard in the microwave, stir in birdseed ( I buy it by the sack from a local farm) and then tip it into either plastic trays from the recycling bin (for the bird table) OR I wrap up a fat ball feeder in a sheet of newspaper and pour the mix into the feeder to set.

Don't try this with log feeders. A starling managed to get the top off mine (or maybe a squirrel did), but the starling slipped in trying to get the last crumbs and died. Not nice