FAO Birders - bird food

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buckas

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Drew
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i guess this goes in here as there's nowhere else for it

after having a look on the net + in shops, prices vary lots - where does everyone get their food from and where's the cheapest place to get wild bird food from?

cheers
 
Not sure this will help mate but my dad bought fat balls constantly from the £1 shop and our back garden was like that film The Birds. Thanks god i bought my own house a few years ago. Was fed up getting woken every morning by birds chirping.
 
Wilkinsons. Their Robin Food seems to work a treat on most of the birds and it's much cheaper than the stuff in garden centres. I think it works out at just under £2 per Kg.
 
Lots of places but i can understand your desire to keep costs down as the food will shift sharpish especially starlings.
What birds do you want to attract in particular?
The soft pallet birds such as thrush family incudes blackbirds tend to only feed on the floor.
Starlings will devour everything.
So for smaller birds such as tits etc a cage with small openings to the food in the centre will keep the suet blocks etc lasting longer.
The cheap cubes on chains for the block foods are about a pound and i made some wooden covers so tits could hang underneath and deter the starlings.
Niger seed if you want goldfinches as its there fave but need specific feeder really or else it goes everywhere.
Sunflower hearts are always popular especially the green finches.
You can make up seed mixes yourself.
Sticking fat in logs works well especially with some seeds in it.

Oh try to avoid seed mixes that have been bulked out with peas as this is a common swizz as peas are no good and will only get chucked all over the yard to seed sweet corn is no use either unless your a pidgeon.
 
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RSPB
Not the cheapest (buy in bulk for better value) but excellent quality and the money goes to protecting the birds.
I have found bits of twig, stones etc in the cheaper food.
It may be coincidence but we now get birds in the garden that we have not had since we moved here 11 years ago. :)
 
costco if you have one close
wild bird seed is £5 for 12kilo
peanuts are £13 for 12 kilo
fat balls are £7 for 50

aldi do specials now and again

trylooking for a animal feed merchants
 
Also be careful you don't add a new food source for the local cats.

And don't let birds become dependant on your food, especially in the winter.
 
jgs001 said:
Wilkinsons. Their Robin Food seems to work a treat on most of the birds and it's much cheaper than the stuff in garden centres. I think it works out at just under £2 per Kg.
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Here here. Wilkos have a good selection of wild bird food. The fat balls ( in a green plastic net bag ) send the local blue tits wild. Hard to take pics of though ;-)
 
thanks all :)

found bird seed cheapest in "instore" store, worked out 70p a kilo, no peas or maize either

also got a lot of good food /balls etc for good prices not to mention the feeding station for £10..........£20 in argos for exact same thing

found this site http://www.arkwildlife.co.uk/ cheapest on nyger seeds i found per kg :)

drew
 
I get our bird food in bulk from the local garden centre, 13Kg bags of black sunflower seed, 15Kg Niger, 20Kg mixed birdseed and 25Kg peanuts. I can't remember the prices but they were roughly half those elsewhere.
 
I was souly buying mine from Vine Hosue Farm until recently. Now we get it all from our local farm shop down the road much cheaper.

For a 22kg bag of wild bird seed mix it's £10 (2 bags a month)
A 22.5kg bag of sunflower heart (the birds favourite food!) it's £22 (one and a half bags a month)

Then we get peanuts, and niger seed from the market, but don't need to buy those very often. We also only put fat balls out in the winter, as the Starlings go mental and bully all the other birds when they find them.

We go through
puddleduck said:
Also be careful you don't add a new food source for the local cats.

And don't let birds become dependant on your food, especially in the winter.
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I'm not sure what you mean by that last bit Puddle. Surely you're not suggesting people stop feeding the birds at any time, especially winter :eek: It's really important that before people start feeding the birds they reaslie that as soon as the food is out they do eat it, and it will be a big part of their diet. It's not a good idea to set feeders up if you can't commit to feeding them 365 days a year.

I prefer to think of my efforts as supporting the local bird population. I can tell you that numbers have increased over the years gradually. I also think the large numbers of young we are witnessing this year are a testiment to that. I can't bare the thought of that stopping, so I always make sure there is food out for the birds. At the moment they are fed twice a day!
 
OneTen said:
I get our bird food in bulk from the local garden centre, 13Kg bags of black sunflower seed, 15Kg Niger, 20Kg mixed birdseed and 25Kg peanuts. I can't remember the prices but they were roughly half those elsewhere.
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where, exactly richard
 
can i hijack this thread a bit, nyger feed is there a type which does not grow as weed around the feeders?
 
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