Cheaper Bird Food? (1 Viewer)

[illy]

Hi all

I have a small city garden however I still get a lot of different birds; tits, finches, robins, wrens, thrushes, nutchaches, woodpeckers, etc.

At the moment I feed nyger seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts - and it is costing me a fortune.

I usually buy from the local supermarket and CJ WildBird Food.

My usual costs are £3.80/kg for Sunflower Seeds, £4.00/kg for Nyger; £7/kg for fat cakes, £3.60kg for Peanuts.

Sometimes I buy peanuts in the supermarket just because they cost £2.00/kg ... how can peanuts for human consumption we so much cheaper than those for birds?

I hope I am missing a secret site where if one buys in bulk the costs will be 1/4 of what I'm paying as at these prices I can't afford to feed all the birds in the garden as demand outweighs supply :eek!:

 

[ChrisKten]

I get all my seed and nuts from here. Peanuts in Shells are less than half the price of Supermarkets.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, delivery is free, and is delivered next day.

 

[The gaffer]

Hi all

I hope I am missing a secret site where if one buys in bulk the costs will be 1/4 of what I'm paying as at these prices I can't afford to feed all the birds in the garden as demand outweighs supply :eek!:

As a start I would go to Wilkinsons, if you have one, although they do not sell in bulk (that I am aware of although larger stores may well do).

Some garden centres are also reasonably priced but please check.

I was complaining about paying £1.80/kg of sunflower hearts never mind £3.80. Link below:-

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=119641

The long term solution is to look for a pet shop or local seed merchant who will sell you the seed in bulk and at much reduced rates. I have just been informed about a petshop in a village not far from me who sells sunflower hearts at 12.5kg for £15 which is around £1.20/kg.

I hope that this helps

Brian

 

[John Fleet]

Cheapest I've found for general bird seed is Home Bargains - just gone up in price to 99p for 2KG - probably not the best mix but my birds don't seem to care!

 

[clayts]

Worth checking your Woolworths end of Summer clearance displays too. Even in my tiny little Woolworths Local, I cleaned up on their supplies of peanuts and 'premium seed' (£1 for a 1.5kg bag), as well as fat balls and feeders - came out with bags full and left their shelves naked of bird-related foodery.

We have a huge Wilkos and sadly they do not sell bird feed in bulk only in the 1 or 2kg packs. Luckily I have a bloke on the market who sells 3lb bags of nuts (yes, pounds not kilograms !) for £1.50, so I regularly fill up on those on a weekly basis - far cheaper than Wilkos.

Wilkos are also doing a deal on their breakfast bird seed mix at present - £1.99 a bag instead of £3.99, but some bloke beat me to it and did his own shelf-clearance

 

[bluebird00]

Garden Bird Supplies sell seed in bulk. If you go to my site in my sig they've also got an offer on at the moment for a 10% discount on all bird seed.

 

[Fozzybear]

Interesting... Garden Bird Supplies list their office as next to the train station in my town. I wonder if it's just an admin office or if you can go there to buy bird food...

 

[clayts]

Wilkos are doing Bill Oddies Wild food/Breakfast food for £1.49 each a 2Kg bag, cheaper than their own brand stuff. And better quality too

Stock up before the part-time bird feeders nick them for Feed the Birds week

 

[Susie]

I bought the Bill Oddie stuff and unfortunately my fussy birds hate it and have decided to desert my feeders in droves. I have also tried the Wilkinson own brand stuff because it is cheap but they don't like that either very much.

I am afraid that I am going to have to continue to buy sunflower hearts/niger seed/peanuts from my local garden centre even though it is very expensive.

I know that buying this food in bulk would be much cheaper, but then I would realise actually how much I spend on the birds and that is scary!

 

[clayts]

My birds (esp chaffinches, coal tits, collared doves and dunnocks) can't get enough of Bill's nosh. Even the magpies pick the 'cornflakes' out of it. My squirrels helpfully pick out the black sunflower seeds too, which are shunned by the birds.

More bargains from Wilko's in the run up to Feed the Bird week - 2 x 2kg bags of Wilko's seed £2.79 (making it cheaper than 2 x 2kg bags of Bill's food), 2 x 2kg bags of sunflower seeds (and they seem to have really cut down on striped ones and gone virtually for black ones) £2.59, 2 x 1kg bags of peanuts £2.79

Sadly, no such deal on sunflower hearts though, which is what my lot crave....

 

[Coltech]

I use http://www.food4wildbirds.co.uk at the moment. Delivery is very quick and, if you spend over £20, is free.

 

[Jonathan Hare]

Just went through the Indoor Market in Hartlepool and one of the fruit stands opposite the sweet stall has Black Sunflower Seeds 99p per kilo.

Will get a couple of bags tomorrow.

 

[balvert]

Made the trip to the Pet, Corn and DIY Superstore in Wheatley Hill a few weeks ago to buy seed for my gran. £15 for a big bag (can't remember exactly how much, but it's probably 12.75kg) of good quality sunflower hearts. I'd really recommend the place, it in specialises in feed for pigeons but the birdfood is of very high quality.

The price in the indoor market sounds tempting, what is the quality like Jonathan?

 

[barnstormer]

Yeah they are 12.5 kg bags of sunflower hearts,i've just bought another bag to start filling my new super duper 12 perch feeder (the mrs weren't too pleased when she clapped eyes on it )just hope the feathery little sods appreciate the grief i've gone thru for them.At least they won't have to fight as much to get on it.

 

[Jonathan Hare]

Will grab a bag tomorrow when I pop through the Indoor Market. I will pop up to Wheatley Hill at some point to see what they have got.

Will let you know what the quality is like of the Black Sunflower Seeds from the fruit stall (oppsite Rogers sweet stall).

 

[balvert]

Will grab a bag tomorrow when I pop through the Indoor Market. I will pop up to Wheatley Hill at some point to see what they have got.

Will let you know what the quality is like of the Black Sunflower Seeds from the fruit stall (oppsite Rogers sweet stall).

Thanks Jonathan. Can't really go wrong at 99p! I think it's time my birds had a bit of a challenge, instead of the namby pamby sunflower hearts.

 

[Jonathan Hare]

I got a couple of bags on Friday. The black Sunflower Seeds are the ones with the white stripe variant.

They had kilo bags of Sunflower Hearts for £1.99 I think. |=(|

With the colder weather now starting to take hold the speed that the birds will deplenish the feeders will increase dramatically.

 

[EastYorkshirefarmer]

Hi,
Interesting post to me, as I have some spare golden linseed left over from harvest. We're experimenting with selling them into the bird market. The prices for bird seed do vary, much more than I expected. In some cases its much more than for human food.

If you go to ebay, the details are as below. £25 for 20kg.

Item number: 150307190311

 

[Ben M]

I use http://www.food4wildbirds.co.uk at the moment. Delivery is very quick and, if you spend over £20, is free.

Me too. I think they're great, and well priced. Previously used CJ's but that got expensive after a while... with the flocks of 25+ Goldfinch and Siskin that drop in several times a day to clear me out, not to mention the other birds.

If you have the storage space and funds, buying in bulk can save you a reasonable amount in the long-term.

 

[John P]

Ferndene Farm Shop located at @ BH25 5SY sells a wild bird seed mix @ 62p per kilo and hulled sunflower seed @ 1.60 per kilo.