Bird feeders - help me out

[John-W-WI]

I haven't had a bird feeder in years.... Because of where I lived.

The recent discussions here about bird feeders (squirrel thread) got me thinking.

What are your favorite bird feeders? I'm happy to feed squirrels as well. I just want to see wildlife.

Type of feeder?

Type of feed?

I'll be living in the woods soon and look forward to watching some critters!

-John

 

[Telemark]

Ordinary tube feeders with black oil sunflower seeds. Plus two or three suet cages for the woodpeckers.

If you want specific birds in the summer, then you have to put out a variety of things. Thistle for goldfinches, oranges for orioles, etc.

 

[ghilliehunter]

John, I'm interested too. My wife wants a feeder put up this spring. I haven't had a bird feeder out in 25 years. Looking forward to it though.

 

[bueller]

I used to enjoy feeding the birds but I didn't enjoy all the mice that setup camp near the feeders, i.e. our home, so I stopped feeding.

 

[j-bird]

Just keep in mind that it's a food source for more than just the birds in most cases. You may attract mice, coons and even deer. Squirrels will like sunflowers and corn as do most of the larger song birds. Smaller song birds like thistle seed and suet for the woodpeckers and sapsucker types. Also keep in mind these birds provide a food source for other critters like hawks and cats as well! I would suggest keeping the feeder away from the house and simply have an inexpensive pair of binos at the window for watching or getting a better view. Birds and the critters can be messy and invite unwanted house guests!

 

[dsinwi]

I started feeding again about 10 years ago. Jbird gave you info on what to feed to what. Depending on how far into it you want to go you can buy the big bags at Mendards or buy specific seed at the coop or mill, do a mono or mix your own. I do a little of both. I'll also stick whole cob corn out for the squirrels from time to time. Some of them also find there way to the ground for other critters as well. I have both wooden, plastic and metal feeders. I prefer the metal as they hold up better to the elements and use. I don't really worry about what falls on the ground. It all gets used by something. I hang mine near my shop away from the house. No problems with mice yet. One tip I will add is place your feeders in or near cover so the birds are less likely to become prey for cats, hawks and the like. I hand mine under my lean to on the shop and some in the brush behind the shop. Old Christmas tress work good also. The birds like to perch and wait their turn. Don't make them have to perch a distance away and have to expend more energy to get to the feeder. Don't make them perch where they are exposed. You'll get more birds and more variety if you proved nearby cover. I like to hang my feeders at eye level, higher versus lower anyway.
I don't feed in the summer months. I start around mid Sept and quit when the trees green up and the bugs come out. Don't start then stop in March when they need it the most. I do the hummingbird feeders and oranges and grape jelly in the spring\summer months also.

 

[Peeps]

I use the cheap plastic tube feeders from Fleet Farm. Every once in awhile a bear gets ahold of mine and chews them up. The coons, turkeys, and deer also knock them down. It’s a cheap fix to replace using those ones. I grab big bags of seed when it’s in sale. Usually just the wild bird mix. I also screw in metal suet feeders for the peckers. It’s fun watching pilated wood peckers out the window. Get a bag of zip ties and zip tie them shut or the squirrels and coons will open them up and grab the suet block running off with it. If you put your feeders too low the deer will stand there and suck each one empty very quick.

 

[JFK52]

I am the 35+ year bird feeder. I live in the country and am surrounded by oak woods. I use tube feeders with 6 perches. I like the kind with the removable bottoms where you pinch in two buttons and the bottom comes off. It makes cleaning easier. You have to clean the tube feeders on a regular basis as the chaff will plug up the bottom inside of the feeder and prevent the use of the two lowest perches. Freezing rain and/or snow can cause similar problems. I fill these with black oil sunflower seed. Some hang from shepards poles, others right from the branches of the trees by my feeders.
I have one large and two smaller nyger (thistle) feeders also. I hang five suet bags for the birds in the winter. I have a custom made stainless steel cage that holds 20+ pounds of suet. For the rest, I use old onion bags or the mesh bags that a dozen oranges are found in at most stores. I get my suet for free from a fellow who processes cattle. The white fat around the kidneys is the best suet.
I have a heated bird bath in the winter and a regular one the rest of the year. It is great fun to watch a bird get into the water and just splash around.
I have a cheap plastic sled that I got for free at the dump. I put all my covered 5 gallon buckets of seed and corn on it and it pull it to the feeders. This helps as I walk with two canes.
I have probably twenty duplex nails hammered into three different trees. I put full cobs of corn on these nails. This is for the squirrels and the cardinals. I also have a machine that take the full cobs, runs them through a set of worm gears and takes the kernels off the cobs. I use this for the corn I throw on the ground for the cardinals.
When the orioles come through in the spring, I put out several stations of the cheapest grape jelly I can purchase.
Yes, I get other critters coming in to my feeders. Flying squirrels, grey, fox and pine squirrels, turkeys, coons and possums at night and deer also. I have seen grouse, pheasant and quail at the feeders over the years. In the spring, I have a tunnel system made by the vols that runs in my front yard. If I could eliminate the vols, I would be happy not to see their tunnels.
All feeders are visible from my chair in the living room of my house. The Audubon society makes a regular stop on the road at my place each year when they are doing their bird count.

 

[John-W-WI]

Good advise everyone, thanks.

I'm going to take my chances with critters other than birds. Hopefully nothing too big shows up (black bear).

JFK52 - any chance you would have a picture of your stainless suet feeder? Sounds like a good idea.

-John

 

[j-bird]

Metal feeders will hold up better. Plastic in the winter months gets very brittle and breaks even easier. Wood and plastic will get chewed on buy the squirrels as well, but if you have serious coons or even bears they will break the feeder and take off with it to cover as well so sometimes cheap is a good thing! My dad uses a "wildlife" block for his trail cam and it has all sorts of things in it including corn and the like. As such he gets pictures of all sorts of critters on his cam.....coons (they try to take off with the block), birds, turkey, hawks, squirrels, you name it. This could possibly be another option as well.

If you do the humming bird feeders - keep in mind many of them will leak over time and that sugar water will attract bugs and the like, so you may want to avoid putting it on a porch or deck or the like as the water can soak into other materials and then squirrels and the like will chew on that material after the sugar.

Feeding the birds and resulting other wildlife is just like supplement feeding deer.....it comes with similar hazards and benefits as far as being regular about it and when you do it.

My grandmother fed the birds for as long as I can remember. It was rather entertaining at times. She would try to teach me what the different birds where and she certainly had her favorites. It was also a great way to watch the squirrels and chipmunks and the like as well and even the hawks and understand how the food chain worked all from the comforts of the indoors. My wife feeds the squirrels off the back porch in the winter and the birds help themselves. Sometimes the simple things like feeding the birds can be a great way to captivate and instill a curiosity of a young mind in wildlife and the outdoors!

 

[Catscratch]

I like to just throw out a couple of cups of black sunflower seed and milo on the ground a little ways away from the house. Produces non-stop activity until it's cleaned up. The two feeders that I've kept around are suit cake feeders and a ball shaped metal feeder. Both are easy to fill and used by birds.

 

[Tree Spud]

I haven't had a bird feeder in years.... Because of where I lived.

The recent discussions here about bird feeders (squirrel thread) got me thinking.

What are your favorite bird feeders? I'm happy to feed squirrels as well. I just want to see wildlife.

Type of feeder?

Type of feed?

I'll be living in the woods soon and look forward to watching some critters!

-John

You'll probably regret, and spend a whole lot of money, not doing some squirrel prevention ... No matter what you do, squirrels will make every attempt to get into the feeders, they can actually chew and destroy a feeder. Have seen them clean out freshly filled feeders in 30 minutes.

If you want to deter the squirrel activity, add some cayenne pepper to the seed in the feeder. It won't affect or harm the birds; however, unless you have cajun squirrels they will taste the heat and not like it ...

I like a mix for millet, black oil sunflowers, corn, nuts, etc. Think its referred to as Cardinal mix as farm n fleet. I usually add extra black oil sunflowers. In the summer you can get thistle seed for a thistle seed feeder and the goldfinches will love that.

Make sure you put out plenty of humming bird feeders.

The suet blocks are great in the winter and come in multiple high energy mixes. You can also buy the seed coated suet logs as the grocery store ... great for woodpeckers.

If you want to try something, take a carcass (skeleton still with fat, ligaments, tissue, and meat fragments on it) from a freshly killed deer or your Thanksgiving turkey and hand it from a wire. Some birds love what they can pick off of the bones.

Below, I built an open box feeder with a roof. Inside. there is screen to put seed on top to eliminate moisture problems. Some birds like feeding this way. Note that some birds are ground feeders so seed on the ground is good also.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I live in black bear country and feeding birds is a challenge. In the winter it's pretty safe. But I have to take all of my feeders in from spring through late fall or they just get destroyed. With that said, I have a few neat feeders that have a nice hopper for the seed and a weight activated landing perch for the birds...birds land and feed and the seed is available. If anything heavier lands on the perch (like a squirrel) the mechanism shuts access off to the seed.

 

[Telemark]

All these people with squirrel problems: do you not eat squirrels?

Likewise for the bears. ?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We don't feed birds at camp - bears. At home, I've built a feeder like the one in Tree Spud's pic at post #12, but bigger. It's rectangular about 16" x 24" with a roof. I drove a piece of rigid steel conduit in the ground as a "socket" and mounted the feeder on a piece of 1" rigid galvanized steel conduit. The conduit screws into a floor flange which is screwed onto the bottom of the feeder. Then the whole rig is slid down into the "socket" in the ground. Height is what you want it to be by cutting the conduit pole to your desired height. This arrangement lets you lift the rig out of the ground for cleaning, maintenance, or mowing over the location as needed. Squirrels, cats & coons can't climb the conduit. Just don't place it in jumping distance of trees for squirrels to test you !!

 

[Natty Bumppo]

All these people with squirrel problems: do you not eat squirrels?

Likewise for the bears. ?

Well I can't speak for "all these people" but I personally have no desire to shoot and eat red squirrels or bears.

 

[JFK52]

I have a friend who loves squirrels. I always shoot 8 to 10 squirrels in the winter, clean them and then vacuum seal them. I give them to my friend and he makes one or two meals from that amount. As for squirrel proofing feeders, I gave up on that years ago. Yes, I have feeders that have been chewed up by the squirrels. I actually enjoy the antics of squirrels trying to get to feeders. I do not have any bears where I live so that is not a concern.
I feed year round. No suet in the summer as it gets stinky and gross. I had an old oak tree stump in my front yard when I bought my house. My first feeder was nothing more that a piece of plywood nailed to the top of the stump. It lasted for years until the stump decayed to the point where it fell over.

 

[Bill]

I haven't got into feeding bird birds. But I have been hanging multiple humming bird feeders for the past few years. Can't hang just one or a bully will gaurd it. I've found I need at least 4. Close enough together that you don't get separate bullies guarding each one but far enough apart that the bully gets tired of guarding all of them.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

All these people with squirrel problems: do you not eat squirrels?

Likewise for the bears. ?

Coming back to this one this AM. Was this a serious question or an attempt at humor? Even if I shot a single bear in the fall I'd still have bear problems all summer at my feeders. And squirrels are like the Russians in WWII on the Eastern front...if you shoot 10 dead, there are just 10 more behind them ready to fill the gaps. I couldn't shoot and eat enough squirrels to make a difference.

 

[H20fwler]

I like hunting squirrels and love eating them but absolutely hate cleaning them, I just suck at it. I always get hair all over the meat or tear them apart and nothing stinks like busted squirrel guts. My youngest son is pretty good at it and one of my buddies can clean one as fast as I can clean a bunny. I just need to get better at it I guess.
I have a ton of them on my farms, huge booner fox squirrels that go pretty much unmolested year to year. I love to bow hunt and try to stay as low impact on my places as I can and I do enjoy seeing them from the stand when it’s slow. One day when I have grandkids they are going to be in big trouble!

I also keep a bird feeder at the house with a squirrel feeder attached. I put it right outside our family room window around ten years ago about two feet from the house, we get a close up view of everything that comes to visit.
I feed shelled corn, ear corn, bird seed, sunflower seed, peanuts, suet, and any bread that gets old. Our feeder is made out of cedar and holds two and a half gallons of seed. The squirrel feeder is made from 4” PVC pipe 20” tall and holds around a gallon and a half of shelled corn.
We live in town but still have all kinds of birds visit...cardinals, wrens, juncos, blue jays, tufted tit mice, doves, wood peckers, nuthatches and grackles and sparrows. When it is cold there could be up to a dozen gray squirrels at and around the feeder. In the spring we get mallards and wood ducks eating under it, I’m about a mile from a large lake.
Every winter we get a couple coopers or sharp shinned hawks hunting in the back yard off the feeder it seems like doves and sparrows must be the easiest to catch.