THE COST OF FEEDING BIRDS

[angle shades]

Sorry if this has been asked before,but has anyone dared add up the cost of being a slave to our feathered friends? Do any of you ever stop feeding them?

I can't be late home from work or have a lay in as I have too many mouths to feed I ran out of raisins and sultanas the other  day and my supplier( Morrisons betterbuy) had run out due to people buying  them to feed the birds ,much to the disgust of a lady who wanted to make cakes

sunflower hearts,mixed seed,peanuts,the cry goes up when I go outside'she's feeding us,lets go guys' I understand bird talk now Can I ever stop?/shades x

[tim]

Yes - so I gave it up for a while - till I softened!

[GREENWIZARD]

small fortune
i cut down the amount i put out after the youngsters are off to a flying start...........there's plenty of juicy slugs & snails from them to get their beaks into at my place
then increase it again as the cold weather approaches

[honeybee]

Yep same here, its like a five star restaurant, they get a continual supply of sunflower seeds, peanuts and mixed feed.
And how do they repay me? By not even sweeping up, even though i do leave them a brush and pan....goodness knows, ive seen them clean up in Snow white so why cant they do it in my back garden?    

[jeanaustin]

This time of the year, its about £5 a week feeding the birds in the garden and at the allotment (two areas here, the bird table on my own plot with fat balls hung on the tree branch above it, and then on the wildlife plot in a feeder).  I get mixed seed, sunflower seed, fat balls and (in addition for the garden bird table) cat biscuits.   The cat biscuits need soaking in water until they are soft and the blackbirds just love them.  I first discovered that the blackbirds liked softened cat biscuits a few years ago, when one of my cats dishes with biscuits in it was out overnight when it rained and the next morning the blackbirds were taking them.  The ingredients of cat biscuits are similar to poultry pellets and  Blackbirds seem to prefer these to bird seed - and they let me know when their supply needs topping up by sitting on the fence and making their 'alarm' call!

[DolphinGarden]

Well, three euro a kilo of peanuts, six small fat balls for three euro 20c. Don't buy feed between April and Sept. However, if there's a stale piece of bread left over I'll cut it up with a scissors into cubes, first little soldiers like I was going to have a boiled egg, then across.

I eat a lot of rice and if there's any left over, I'll fling that out too. They love it.

[Trixiebelle]

I only feed them over Winter - home-made lard/seed balls and left-over bread. They need to repay me in Spring by eating slugs and insects ... but they have obviously taken the 'hump' because they sit in the garden @ 4:30am and sing at the top of their little beaks to wake me up and keep me awake until about 7am.

Canny little birds they are 

[lorna]

Cost? Haven't got a clue but with  five feeders on the "station " plus the bird table I suppose the cost soon adds up. I have been pretty lucky lately, middle daughter came in and said I bought you some bird seed instead of chocolates She bought me a kilo of mixed seed and a kilo of sunflower hearts. Then young Lorna came round and bought me a kilo of mixed seed, asking if I thought it was a good mix. Neither would take the money for the seed.
I have noticed this last week the birds are going mad for the fat balls but not eating so much seed. I know they can get to worms etc now but any reason why they are getting through so many fat balls??
Lorna.

[Jesse]

I'm growing lots of sunflowers this year in the hope of subsidising the cost of the bird seed I buy. We also throw out old bread made into breadcrumbs. I've tried putting out grated cheese but our birds don't like the brand I buy, perhaps too mature. When we had the hens the wild birds liked the crushed maize that I put out so this year I might dry some cobs (I'm growing maize this year as well as sweetcorn) and see if I can crush it. And when the farmer harvests the wheat I might ask him if there's any sweepings off the floor that I can have.

What else could I grow at the allotment to store for winter bird food?

[Paulines7]

I have noticed this last week the birds are going mad for the fat balls but not eating so much seed. I know they can get to worms etc now but any reason why they are getting through so many fat balls??
Lorna.

Probably the starlings Lorna.  They can get through the fat balls or half coconut shell stuffed with fat and nuts in no time at all.  They have probably told their mates about it too.     The seed eaters may be too busy nesting.  I am lucky if I have one goldfinch on my feeder now yet a few weeks ago I had 28. 

[lorna]

Pauline Yes as always the starlings are still having a feed from the fatballs but the sparrows are also on the fat ball feeder nearly every time I look out the kitchen window.. Is it OK to keep the fatballs going? I seem to remember someone saying they don't feed them in the summer
Lorna

[angle shades]

Thanks for your replies I don't think I can stop feeding now, I've a sparrows nest in the roof (first time last year and rared three broods),blackbirds galore,blue tits, great tits,dunnocks,starlings,collard doves.Baby blackbirds hidden all over the garden,now hooked on sultanas all my other feathered friends have nests in other peoples gardens but come in mine to be fed and watered. In return I appear to have an aphid free garden( the first time ever) I've never seen a rose bud in my garden without an aphid on it before /shades

[janet h 1948]

There was a thread on the BBC gardening website tonight re bird feeding & someone put up a link to RSPB I think. It advices what to feed & what not to feed, & at this time of year bread is off the menu as it can harm babies.

[Obbelix]

Mine are fed all year.   It helps the adults get through winter and have healthy babies and then they go on to be big and sturdy enough for the winter freeze.  Last year my resident sparrows and assorted tits had 3 broods.  My current feeding is 10 fat balls a day plus a bit of mixed seed for the ground feeders at the main feeding station plus 3 balls a day next to my climbing roses - attracts birdies who eat the aphids on the buds.

 At this time of year the ground feeders such as chaffinches, robins, blackbirds hardly come and the peanut feeders don't get many takers but the fat balls go like hot cakes.  The woodpeckers love them too.

[lorna]

Crikey Obbelix that is a lot of  fat balls. Yes my fat balls are going much quicker than normal but the seed feeders are not going so fast. I put plenty down for the ground feeders but I feel that the odd pigeon also enjoys the ground feed.
Where have you been? Haven't seen you around much lately.
Regards Lorna.

[DolphinGarden]

Obbelix,

well you learn something new every day. I didn't know the robins were ground feeders...This time last year, though, giving the hedge the first cut, one did accompany me while the trimmings mounted up. Was a good excuse not to tidy up straight away!!!

C.

[Hyacinth]

cat biscuits need soaking in water until they are soft and the blackbirds just love them

Spillers shapes! My dog's Spiller's Shapes. Magpies used to nick them from under the dog's nose and then dunk them in the bird bath to soften them.

[MollyBloom]

Raw pastry is good, made with plenty of fat (no salt, obviously). I buy the cheapest flour & margarine and make up a big batch, freezing it into daily portions. It grates quite well when frozen, so it goes a long way. In any case, it's academic to talk about it now, as we should only feed them in winter (when natural food is scarce) and early spring (when they expend a lot of time & energy on nest-building). It's not helpful to feed them once the chicks have hatched, as each species needs a particular diet in order to thrive. I know they're cute and we want the feel-good factor of acting like Clark Kent saving the universe, but in order to be really helpful we need to know what they need and when. Look at the RSPB site to find out more.

[angle shades]

I do I'm a member   The website actually says during spring/summer months birds need a diet high in protein especially when they are moulting.blacksun flower seed,soaked sultanas raisins and currants,mild grated cheese mealworms, waxworms,good seed mixtures etc etc, fat,bread and peanuts should not be used unless peanuts are in wire mesh feeders.I'm finding the replies very interesting as the birds in my garden won't touch fat balls,but are emptying a seed feeder at least once a day and eating peanuts(in a wire mesh feeder!)If the sparrows and great tit get  a piece of peanut thats too big they bash it on our tree or roof to make it smaller/shades

[caroline7758]

I found a place locally where I can buy big sacks of bird food, so it's a lot cheaper- I even splash out on the "no mess" type now. As for robins, I know they prefer to feed from the ground, but I saw ours on the feeder the other day.