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Crabs winter food

B

Bowsnbucks

5 year old buck +
As I type this, we're getting a picture-perfect snow here in SE Pa. Calm, windless, with snowflakes dropping silently. Our 2 crab apple trees are drawing a variety of birds this morning. Both of our crabs are what most would consider "bird crabs", and our neighbors across the street have 1 big bird crab of their own. Bird traffic between their place and ours is at a frenzied pace. My wife and I have seen so far today - cardinals, cedar waxwings, downy woodpeckers, blue jays, junco's, white-throated sparrows, house sparrows, song sparrows, Carolina wrens, and dozens of robins that came from who knows where. 7 squirrels also were eating the small crab apples from the limbs.

We're supposed to get up to 3" of snow to cover our bare ground, so those 3 trees will be feeding critters for a few days. You guys in the Great Lakes snow-belt tundra can stop snickering over our 3" of snow! I've been in Lake-effect snows off Lake Ontario before, so this is just dandruff.
 
I like the idea of helping all nature, I need to plant some crabs for birds and not just deer. Bowsnbuck could you others list crabs that you have observed that work good for the birds. Thanks
 
Though not a crab, I have a huge forsythia bush thats covers maybe 15 sq ft and is maybe 8' tall in spots, right outside my living room window in a small patch of woods that attracts tons of birds at all times of year. I've seen them about this time of year eating the buds and hiding in it. One late winter day, I counted over 15 different species in one afternoon sitting, as Pat McManus would say, "staring blankly out the window wishing it weren't winter."
 
KY wild said:
I like the idea of helping all nature, I need to plant some crabs for birds and not just deer. Bowsnbuck could you others list crabs that you have observed that work good for the birds. Thanks
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Red splendor crabapple is the best crabapple I know for birds. You can get grafted versions for $25 or a package of 20 seedlings for $50 from many county tree sales. I’ve planted a lot of those. Seedling fruit size varies, but more than half are still perfect for birds and the rest are better for deer.
 
We have some mature bird crabs that were given to us years ago. They are suckers from the original trees. There are two kinds. One resembles profusion. They are not red splendor. We have two of those.

Red Splendor was developed by a small Minnesota nursery.
 
sandbur said:
We have some mature bird crabs that were given to us years ago. They are suckers from the original trees. There are two kinds. One resembles profusion. They are not red splendor. We have two of those.

Red Splendor was developed by a small Minnesota nursery.
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Bergeson Nursery in northwest Minnesota. About 20 years ago i called them and had the pleasure of talking to the elder Mr. Bergeson. He was a very interesting man and he was the originator or Red Splendor.
 
I have been working on a yard critter watching project for a year now. I took out a stand of brush against my yard and plugged in 400 ROD and 7 siberian crabs in an area that isn't 3000 square feet maybe. I went through a few weeks ago and whacked down all the stump sprouts from the past season, and I'm letting it grass in and get as thick with whatever comes as possible. The one thing I will do is keep all the brush (other than the ROD and siberian crab) below 6' tall. I want that to be a mess of tall grass, ROD, and crab apple trees.

I got to watch the birds finish off my ROD berries on the lawn this fall, and it was something to watch them go. They did not mess around once it was go time. I've also got some white cedars on the yard I've been keeping clear of competition. Every so often they really load up with nuts and the squirrels will number over a dozen at once time clearing off that tree.
 
KY wild said:
I like the idea of helping all nature, I need to plant some crabs for birds and not just deer. Bowsnbuck could you others list crabs that you have observed that work good for the birds. Thanks
Click to expand...
There are many good "bird crabs". A very good DR one is "Sugar Tyme", which I have in our back yard. Covered in white blossoms in the spring, it produces about 1/2" bright red crabapples. Our tree is still loaded with them, and the birds are having a feast in it. We also have a "Profusion" crab in our yard, but it gets CAR if there are any varieties of junipers (including red cedars) around. But it's a good bird crab. It was loaded with a variety of birds this morning. Another highly rated crab is "Prairie Fire". PF was awarded the Iowa state tree-of-the-year prize several years ago.
 
I started off with toringo crabapple. It's a natural dwarf, and it grew next to my foodplot without caging. Some reason its not very favored browse. They take a bite or two and take off. Eraser head fruit holds all winter. Some grows as shrubs, some as smalller 10-12ft trees.

At camp I am growing Adirondack crabapple. Seems to be quite a lot like whitetail crabs turkey crab. Had a lot of interest in whitetail crabs winter gold. Just don't have the zone 3 rating.

yellow river had red splendor for $4-5 each.

IF you like birds, plant a mulberry or two. Get a July / august frenzy. Deer, squirrels, every bird in the neighborhood. Northrup mulberry is a proven zone 3 tree. Used to be a gem of SLN nurseries, They're trying to bring it back into stock. Got 2 young ones. The one at home I am pruning the lower shoots and trying stick propogation of them, just like red dogwood. That's how the ones I bought from cricket hill were made.
 
My best bird crab is the mature japanese crab that was here when we bought this house. Pine grosbeaks have been camped here for weeks cleaning it out and just left two weeks ago. Ruffed grouse usually fly into it every winter even though it’s inside my fenced dog yard.
My main concern is feeding ruffed grouse so I have a prairie fire, Indian Summer, Washington hawthorn, Profusion, a wild thorn apple and a WT droptine plus a few serviceberry bushes and a hackberry tree.
I can never find a Red Splendor, I would like to buy a larger specimen locally if I could.
Sugar tyme is climbing my
List of must adds.

IMG_0364.jpeg
 
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Ruffdude said:
My best bird crab is the mature japanese crab that was here when we bought this house. Pine grosbeaks have been camped here for weeks cleaning it out and just left two weeks ago. Ruffed grouse usually fly into it every winter even though it’s inside my fenced dog yard.
My main concern is feeding ruffed grouse so I have a prairie fire, Indian Summer, Washington hawthorn, Profusion, a wild thorn apple and a WT droptine plus a few serviceberry bushes and a hackberry tree.
I can never find a Red Splendor, I would like to buy a larger specimen locally if I could.
Sugar tyme is climbing my
List of must adds.

View attachment 87904
Click to expand...
WOW
 
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