Bird Feeding! Share your tips and advice!

[K-12 Chickens]

How many feeders do you have? What bird food do you feed? What species are you trying to attract(or attracting)? I love bird feeding and have several feeders placed around the house that attract plenty of birds. I have a large tray feeder with a roof in the backyard that has a suet cage attatched to it. I also have a a hopper feeder and a cup feeder(has several cups attatched to place food) in the front yard and two hummingbird feeders in the back and front yard. I mostly feed black-oil sunflower seeds, nuts and suet in all feeders(homemade sugar water in hummingbird feeders). Lately I've been having a White-Crowned Sparrow feeding in the backyard. It sure is pretty!

 

[farm girl]

thats good you like birds.

 

[ElizabethAz]

We have two Seed feeders (just use a standard millet and sunflower mix, nothing fancy)...one of them is a tower feeder that can feed up to six small birds--tell that to the woodpeckers! And one other bird feeder that looks like a little house that can feed four birds...AGAIN the woodpeckers are our regular customers....they are such bullys they chase off the other birds.. And we have a ton of other birds in the yard I would MUCH rather feed, BUT that will not happen as long as woodpeckers are around.. Occasionally we get a very brave Cardinal, a few house finches, Thrashers, Gilded Flickers, cactus wrens, an Oriole, gold finches, doves, and white crowned sparrows-- that is if the woodpeckers don't see them and chase them off the feeders..
We have a hummingbird feeder in the garden, but they never use it...the woodpeckers and flickers do however so it doesn't matter what I put in there... :/
And occasionally I like to put a seed block out for the quail--especially in the winter and summer when food for them is scarce. They swarm the block of seed, and the Woodpeckers/flickers dont stand a chance-- which makes ME very happy to see that some OTHER species gets a chance to eat!

 

[3forfree]

alot of those blocks are suet based and when the weather gets real warm they will melt and make a very unsightly and smelly mess. I make suet cakes in the winter and keep them in the freezer until needed, then put them out in the feeders, but only in the winter. This year I haven't put out a hummer feeder but have some red plants on a shepherds hook hoping to attract some. so far no luck. anyone seeing any hummers

 

[K-12 Chickens]

During warm weather, a homemade suet recipe I use is peanut butter, cornmeal, nuts, seeds, raisins and a little bit of water. I can spread it on my suet feeder, lids I have attached to my feeder, spread it on tree bark(provided the 'coons don't get to it first) and crumble it on a tray feeder. It may get soft during warm weather, but it doesn't melt.

 

[Happy Chooks]

The only birds I feed are the hummingbirds. Everything else steals my fruit - no food for them, don't need any more of them hanging around. (especially the darn robins)

 

[K-12 Chickens]

The robins steal any fruit you put out for other birds? Didn't think they were really a big fan of fruit(the robins around where I live are only interested in the bird bath).

 

[Happy Chooks]

I don't put the fruit out..............they steal it off my trees. They peck into the fruit right before it ripens and the area around the pecks rot. I've resorted to netting my trees to keep them out. Not all fruit can be picked unripe (peaches can and so I pick them and ripen them in the house) - pluots do not ripen well after being picked.

 

[K-12 Chickens]

Oh, ok!

 

[harveyhorses]

Hi fellow bird watchers and feeders! I stopped using the mix of seeds and used straight sunflower seeds, The local Southern Stats it is cheeper
and does not attract quite as many 'trash birds'. I have Cardinals, bluebirds (yippeee!) goldfinches woodpeckers, saw a red headed
the other day and wow are they beautiful. I have never had a problem with my suet melting, yeh it gets pretty soft, but never drips. They
really love it too, I have pictures of woodpecker on on side and cardinal on the other while it is spinning around.
Does anyone make suet, like what they sell, is it rendered fat? If so how?
My favorite garden companions, aside from the hens, are the chickadees and titmice. Always there with a suggestion or two.