Clearing up mess from Suet Balls under Bird Feeder

[Deleted User]

Hooks to the bottom of the food tray I bought some for £3 in Lidl 

Black_Cat2

in_my_wellies said:

I also had this problem. I didn't want to encourage the ground feeding birds to where cats could catch them.

I hang the feeders inside two old hanging baskets joined with clothes pegs. I place a large plant saucer in the bottom which catches the bits. Robins and dunnock feed from the tray. I have never seen a sparrow here in over 30 years

My diagram isn't much better than my description but here goes:-

Great diagram imw and a good idea 😁

quirkydeptless

Thanks for the input everyone. I was thinking of ground trays, but will look into the hanging tray ideas too.

Having had a look on Amazon, I can see plenty of hanging bird feeding trays with hooks that i could hook underneath my suet-ball feeders

mad_spaniel

Just as an aside. If you don't get up all the seeds, then 'interesting' plants can grow. I proudly tended a vigorous plant of unknown origin waiting for it to flower hoping for something pretty in the border. That is till my son came home from uni. and said he could make a fortune from selling the 3' high cannabis plant growing in the back garden! Needless to say I dispatched the offending plant forthwith. I have obviously led a very sheltered life.

quirkydeptless

MalMonroe said:

This has really upset me and I don't think you should be feeding birds if it means you have to kill other creatures when they leave a bit of debris. 

 I am really sorry to have upset you @MalMonroe

The rats were there before my bird feeders, so it wasn't the extra debris that was attracting them. I live in an urban envorionment in a Victorian terrace, and rat infestations are an issue if they get out of control and enter the houses, as these ones were. They were breeding under a neighbour's decking. Like yourself, he was averse to killing them, and was trying to catch them in traps and take them to the local park. However he could not catch enough, even with me putting some cage traps out too, to stop the numbers growing. He even then had to consider contacting his Landlady about getting professionals in to deal with the infestation, but was concerned even about doing that.

I decided that I had to deal with the rats coming into my garden myself. I used locked rat trap boxes that ensured no other animal apart from a rodent could get in. No rats were left lying around.

It is a horrible moral dilema to have helped one species and hurt another, and my neighbour thanked me for taking this dilema from him.

I don't think this will make you feel any better, and I regret mentioning it now, but at least I thought I should make you aware that I took steps to ensure no other garden visitors would be harmed by my actions.

twopenny

What about a big plastic potting tray that they sell in garden centres. If it's big enough it should collect most and be easier to clean.

There are large trays of all sorts on Ebay and probably Amazon but easiest to look at the garden centre first.

A builders merchant may have similar.

Arthog

Also, buy the best quality suet balls you can find. The cost difference can be minimal with a big difference in the amount of debris as cheaper ones contain fillers.

We have a large tray on the ground - the sort which is used by garages to catch car oil leaks. A Freecycle request may come up with a tray you can re-purpose. You'll need to drill holes in the tray or you may end up with a different, messier, quandary.

greyteam1959

quirkydeptless said:

roddydogs said:

Hot water and a Karcher?

 I have a window cleaning Karcher, i hadn't thought of using that, thanks.

No no no nooooooo !!
A larger pressure washer yes not a window vac.

quirkydeptless

greyteam1959 said:

quirkydeptless said:

roddydogs said:

Hot water and a Karcher?

 I have a window cleaning Karcher, i hadn't thought of using that, thanks.

No no no nooooooo !!
A larger pressure washer yes not a window vac.

Doh, of course. Though one of these looks fun, it would be a pricy solution as I don't have any other uses for a pressure washer. Or maybe I could find some

quirkydeptless

Thanks for all the input, here is my solution...

Plan is for the hanging feeders to catch the suet ball crumbs, and give the birds another feeding area.
I expect some will scatter beyond these, but my hope is that this will make a much smaller mess, and be a nice amount for the ground feeding birds to clear up.
The fir trees beyond the end of my garden are a great safe space, the birds flock to them at the slightest hint of danger. 
Hmm, the sparrows were gathering as I was setting this up