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Mixed Seed or Separate Feeders? (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Angle
- Start date
timmyjones
Well-known member
dont peanuts and thistle seeds require different feeders?
Katy Penland
Well-known member
As Timmy points out, it would be pretty difficult to mix the relatively large peanuts with the tiny thistle seeds in the same feeder as the thistle would just fall out to the ground. That aside, I like keeping the different seeds separated as they attract different species, so everybody seems to get a more even chance at a perch rather than all of them scrambling for space at the same feeder(s).
OK Birder
Life is good!
Bird feeders are like eating potato chips - you can't stop at just one! So if you're like most of us you'll end up with special feeders for specific foods. I have two suet feeders, one hopper feeder for mixed seed, one plastic tube feeder for a fruit & nut mix, one plastic tube feeder for nyger, one mesh tube for nyger and a large mesh feeder for shelled, roasted peanuts. Plus three birdbaths. Oh, and a hummingbird feeder. I'm thinking of another hummingbird feeder and something to feed meal worms in. The result is many birds and many different types of birds!
Lyn
Lyn
Transformer
Well-known member
Currently I have only 2 feeders, with mixed seed. I'm not attracting as many different birds as I'd like, so I am going to get at least a few more feeders and fill with one item; thistle, sunflower, and maybe peanuts, cracked corn. I will keep one mixed feeder.
Chris Oates
Why does a Black-headed Gull have a brown head...
Transformer said:
Sunflower here certainly attracts birds that mixed seed doesn't - my greatest success though has come from lard/suet mixed with meusli/oat flakes & raisins - just now it's good for the breeding birds as they can grab a big mouthful to take back to the nest.
Suet feeding has brought me birds that I've never seen before and brought in locals that have never visited me - less ground mess too.
Transformer
Well-known member
I have added the sunflower feeder and niger feeder. And I have also found that suet brings birds that I've never seen before! It's messy, but worth it!Chris Oates said:
I should add that I have changed mix brands. I was buying the mostly-millet mix from hardware stores but I found a much nicer mix, with cracked corn and peanuts.
snowyowl
Well-known member
Suet shouldn't be messy. Are you buying cakes of commercial stuff (that's ) what I do) or rending your own?
Using a variety of feeders is the best way in the end. I put cracked corn (it's cheap) on a platform feeder and in a ground feeder. Some of the small birds do visit those feeders on a casual basis but the main visitors are grackles, starlings and blackbirds and doves. That tends to help keep them away from the more expensive BO sunflower seed. I'm not suggesting that it keeps them away completely but it does help. Sunflower seed goes in two tube feeders, one a three tube and one a single, it's a squirrel proof one set to allow nothing bigger than a grosbeak. I put a very high quality mixed seed (sunflower hearts, niger etc) in another squirrel proof one. This feeder tend is set to allow only finch or sparrow size birds to feed. I get redpolls and Tree sparrows on it a lot. Niger in two tube feeders, peanuts in a metal mesh tube feeder and lastly suet in cages. Peanutbutter goes in holes in a hanging log but I only use it once in a long while. I suspect that too much of it may be bad for the birds.
The niger and peanut feeders are ones designed specifically for those seeds.
I throw cracked corn on the ground where it is cleaned up by juncos, Song Sparrows etc. They also pick up any spilled seed.
Throw in three bird baths (and a pond) and that's it.
Costs a fortune in seed every year but who's counting?
Using a variety of feeders is the best way in the end. I put cracked corn (it's cheap) on a platform feeder and in a ground feeder. Some of the small birds do visit those feeders on a casual basis but the main visitors are grackles, starlings and blackbirds and doves. That tends to help keep them away from the more expensive BO sunflower seed. I'm not suggesting that it keeps them away completely but it does help. Sunflower seed goes in two tube feeders, one a three tube and one a single, it's a squirrel proof one set to allow nothing bigger than a grosbeak. I put a very high quality mixed seed (sunflower hearts, niger etc) in another squirrel proof one. This feeder tend is set to allow only finch or sparrow size birds to feed. I get redpolls and Tree sparrows on it a lot. Niger in two tube feeders, peanuts in a metal mesh tube feeder and lastly suet in cages. Peanutbutter goes in holes in a hanging log but I only use it once in a long while. I suspect that too much of it may be bad for the birds.
The niger and peanut feeders are ones designed specifically for those seeds.
I throw cracked corn on the ground where it is cleaned up by juncos, Song Sparrows etc. They also pick up any spilled seed.
Throw in three bird baths (and a pond) and that's it.
Costs a fortune in seed every year but who's counting?
