Birdbath scum (1 Viewer)

[chippingsparrow]

I have a birdbath made of concrete, and it develops a red scum on the bottom of the birdbath every few days. Just wondering is this scum is injurious to the birds? A couple of times a week I clean the birdbath with a scrub brush. In this hot weather, I have to fill the birdbath sometimes twice a day (it's fairly shallow). Is there something that can be done to prevent this scum from forming?

Lately, a crow has discovered the birdbath, and is using it to wash his food...sometimes bird guts are left behind, egg shells, or chicken bones scrounged from garbage. But this red scum was there before the crow starting using it. The other birds are not using it as frequently since the crow came....I shoo it away, but it is so observant that now if it sees me move through the glass patio door, it takes off. It knows it's not welcome.

 

[naturistbird]

Hi chippingsparrow,
Reg bird baths and scum. I have 2 bird baths, one of which is in the sun and gets heavily used. I have to clean it out every so often as the base gets covered with a thick muddy scum where the birds have perched to drink. However, I also have put out by it an old washing-up bowl, which I fill with clean water regularly, using the hose. This is also heavily used by the larger birds to have a "total immersion" bath so also gets very scummy and the water becomes very discoloured. I put this (and the birdbath) near cover in the back garden and it is lovely to see the adult magpies, jackdaws and crows encourage their babies to step into it and have a bath! Having a choice of bathing/drinking containers definitely helps the use of the birdbaths (like yours, rather shallow).

 

[erniehatt]

You will probably find that the discolouring is from algea, nothing much you can do about it, unless you can in some way make the water move i.e with a pump. Ernie

 

[Mary]

It's been recommended that bird baths/drinking bowls should be emptied every day and refilled with clean water, then disinfected and rinsed at least once a week. If possible, it can be left to dry out each night. Various diseases and parasites will pass from bird to bird via the water.

 

[Lady Eagle]

I empty and refill my bird bath with fresh water daily. And when I get algae buildup (mine is green, though, not red) I pour some vinegar into the bath and scrub it clean with a bristle cleaning brush. I rinse the vinegar water out thoroughly before refilling. I think the vinegar really helps because the algae takes longer to form since I started using it!

 

[chippingsparrow]

Thanks, all,for your comments and suggestions. I'm going to have to scrub it daily instead of every few days....and Lady Eagle I think I'll try your vinegar suggestion and see if that slows the growth of the algae Cheers everyone!

 

[Lady Eagle]

You're welcome, Chippingsparrow! I find that after using the vinegar to scrub the bath, I don't have to actually scrub again for about a week. I just rinse and refill daily!

 

[Ruby]

I notice that many people submitting to this thread are from outside of the UK - the reason that I mention this is that we have had quite a debate here in the last year or so regarding the increasing prevalence of various childhood diseases, conditions etc, and one theory is that is might be because children are not being exposed to so much dirt, bugs etc in early life and therefore are not building up much of an immune system. Many UK children spend their lives slumped in front of the telly or computer and only go outside to get in the car to travel to (usually) organised social events, which are inside somewhere else - the days of rolling around in the mud, climbing trees, falling in the pond etc are all gone and the theory is that this explains why many modern children are so weedy.

Coming back to the thread.... I sometimes wonder about this when we talk about cleaning out nestboxes, scrubbing birdbaths with chemicals - after all, no-one cleans out holes in trees with boiling water or puts vinegar in puddles....

Have to say that I have no idea of the rights and wrongs of this - as much as anything, I just wondered whether the whole subject crops up for debate in anywhere other than the UK?

 

[Mary]

I can see what you mean, Ruby, but I think that only applies in general. Diseases like cholera and dysentry have only been contained because we are cleaner now than in the past.
Puddles tend to dry out between rainfall (usually!) and natural ponds are only visited by a limited number of birds/animals and rainfall will help to refresh the water. Our problem in gardens seems to be large numbers of birds visiting the water containers. They also 'deposit their waste' in them! Just a week of this, when maybe a bird carrying the Trich. parasite has drunk from it, can lead to a high chance of contagion. After all, I wouldn't like to drink from a cup other people had been using for a week without cleaning it!!!!

 

[Ruby]

I can see what you mean, Ruby, but I think that only applies in general. Diseases like cholera and dysentry have only been contained because we are cleaner now than in the past.
Puddles tend to dry out between rainfall (usually!) and natural ponds are only visited by a limited number of birds/animals and rainfall will help to refresh the water. Our problem in gardens seems to be large numbers of birds visiting the water containers. They also 'deposit their waste' in them! Just a week of this, when maybe a bird carrying the Trich. parasite has drunk from it, can lead to a high chance of contagion. After all, I wouldn't like to drink from a cup other people had been using for a week without cleaning it!!!!

Hi Mary,

Yes. It is obviously true that advances in medicine, hygiene etc have been of benefit to the human race, otherwise we'd still have a life expectancy of 40....

The point that I was making was a much more recent phenomena where it has been suggested that cossetting = weakness = more sickness....

What is absolutely certain is that as each year passes, children are more prone to eczema, asthma, allergies and general sickliness (not to mention a whole raft of psychological ailments and syndromes) and the above has been put forward as one possible explanation for this.

No idea whether this idea holds any water or not, and probably even less of an idea as to whether there is any parallel regarding wild-life.......

In my own case, I DO clean out my nestboxes, and regularly clean my birdbath, but only to the extent of giving it a bit of a scrub and re-filling with clean water - I wouldn't use any other substance.

 

[Mary Evelyn]

I hose down my bird baths every morning when i refill and clean properly, once or twice a week on my days off.

I wouldn't worry though Ruth, i am sure the birds still get their fair share of dirt one way and another.

Know what you mean though.When i was a kid we always forgot to wash our hands and just grabbed at the sandwiches and raced outside to play,if we dropped the sarny, no bother we'd just pick it right back up.None of us had any of the problems you have stated.I think a bit of both is healthy.

Mind you.i'll know better when i get to be 100.B

 

[catmadden]

The best way to avoid this scum is to clean your birdbath at least every 2 days. After cleaning, put about a tablespoon of lemon juice in the water. The lemon juice will help slow the growth of the bacteria that causes the scum... Works for me...

 

[amkid247]

I have a birdbath made of concrete, and it develops a red scum on the bottom of the birdbath every few days. Just wondering is this scum is injurious to the birds? A couple of times a week I clean the birdbath with a scrub brush. In this hot weather, I have to fill the birdbath sometimes twice a day (it's fairly shallow). Is there something that can be done to prevent this scum from forming?

Lately, a crow has discovered the birdbath, and is using it to wash his food...sometimes bird guts are left behind, egg shells, or chicken bones scrounged from garbage. But this red scum was there before the crow starting using it. The other birds are not using it as frequently since the crow came....I shoo it away, but it is so observant that now if it sees me move through the glass patio door, it takes off. It knows it's not welcome.

i beleive its just harmless algae but i wouldnt go swimming in a pool that looked like that so u might as well clean it for the birds