Do you have any suggestions on how to stop messy eaters ?

[ron1863]

We have our feeders set in and above a bed of perennial plants where the ground is soil, there is rarely any seed left as the Dunnocks, Robins and Blackbirds quickly clear it away. You do get the occasional strange plant growing in the summer though.

[tawny girl]

how about one of those garden hoovers ,theyre meant to be for hoovering up grass cuttings but i reckon it would do the job!

[tameblackbirds]

Originally Posted by Steve_In_Cheshire

I put the crushed peanuts in myself, its my own mix that i make up which contains sunflower hearts, crushed peanuts, dried mealworms, fat cake broken up into small pieces, sultanas and occasionaly a bit of cheese. That way their is something for everyone in the garden, its just Starlings have no manners whatsoever and i`m sure they enjoy tossing stuff onto the lawn just for the sake of it.

To have so much food on the lawn is not good as mould could grow on it, its so difficult to try and get small particles of food out the lawn.

think it is to do with starling beaks rather than tossing food. beak built for piercing lawns to find leatherjackets and other insects leave out crushed peanuts seems that not many of your birds are eating if it is being left on ground. peanuts in a cage will provide peanut eaters with all they want.

[feathered-friend]

I would use an old hoover.

In the summer we reguarly hoovered up after our guinea pigs, including food, sawdust and you know what!

Neighbours probably thought we were mad but hey it Kept the lawn in good condition

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by Pam_M

The best idea or alternatively just move your feeder around your lawn...the rain will wash the bits away!

That's my soluition too, although I have been leaving it in the same place for a couple of weeks now for photographic purposes. Also, if you have a rotary mower with a grass collection box that will hoover up a lot of the spill in the summer when you're cutting the grass on a regular basis.

Dave P.

[Madelinew]

I don't use a ground feeder at all. I have about 10 feeders in one of my trees which include peanut mesh feeder, sunflower hearts, 2 tubes of niger seeds, 2 large fatball holders and a number of coconut shells with a fat based mix in them. A lot is knocked on the floor by messy feeders and it gets hoovered up by the ground feeding birds. It was a case of trial and error. I have 2 bird tables above my decking and stopped using them altogether because of the mess. In this case it wasn't just food but the bird droppings were wrecking the wood. Plus I get more ratty and mouse type visitors to these anyway.