How many times a day are you feeding the birds at present ?

[Steve_In_Cheshire]

With the weather being harsh for a few weeks i was just wondering how many times a day you have been feeding the birds, at the min i`m feeding them 3 times a day where they get the main food at first light which is about 7-30am, they get a top up at around 12-30 then i put the last lot out at around 3 in the afternooon where they feed heavily so they can keep warm overnight. The water gets changed about 3 times a day as well as the Starlings are like jumping penguins in the bird bath, i have a smaller tray on the floor as well for the ground feeders to drink from.

The food goes quick here because i`m looking after about 30 blackbirds, around a similar number of starlings, we get around 10 collared doves a day and some wood pigeons then we have the usual like goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, fieldfares, redwings, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, magpies, jays, sparrows and our robin.

They are easy to look after really, the starlings own the bird table now and they get a crushed homemade fat cake and peanut granule mix each day which they seem to polish off no problem, i scatter sunflower hearts, peanut granules and peanuts on the ground for birds like the collared doves, wood pigeons and ground finches, the blackbirds like the sunflower hearts as well even though they get their own sultanas and apples which keeps the fieldfares happy as well.

Its not too expensive really if you shop around, sultanas are a bargain at 65p a bag from either tesco or asda and apples are fairly cheap, peanuts are cheap if you buy them in bulk along with peanut granules and sunflower hearts, the money side doesn`t come into it with me, the buzz i get is from knowing that these birds your feeding will thrive and they are fascinating little creatures to watch.

[Cheryl]

I'm feeding the birds in my garden at much the same times of day as you Steve - although I have nowhere those numbers.

I keep the water in the two bird baths fresh and as ice free as possible but to be honest over this last week of really cold weather I can't recall seeing a bird in either of them - I've seen a few of birds on the ice in the pond drinking from the ice free part though.

I've run out of suet pellets and dried mealworms - I managed to get to town yesterday and all the shops that sell bird food have sold out of bird food in general - I've not seen a postie since Tuesday so there has been no point ordering anything on line - so I have resorted to using cooking suet - the low fat stuff disappeared quite quickly but I'm now using the orginal beef suet which dosn't seem to be so popular - I have used it in home made seed cake before for the birds with no problem, oh well.

My birds are also getting raisins/sultanas and apple and there was some left over pastry which I put through the potatoe ricer to make strands so it would make it easier for the birds to eat - I must be mad I'm sure they don't care what it looks like

They also have a good supply of seeds - so all in all I think they're well catered for.

[lucy78green]

I have noticed that I seem to be putting out less food than this time last year or the year before. I have 5 fatball feeders (that take about 5 fatballs each), two seed feeders, one nyjer feeder and one peanut feeder. I used to have to refill the fatballs every 2 days and the seed every day. The peanuts aren't quite as popular and I only have 2 goldfinches. Two years ago I had lots of siskins, and this year I haven't seen any, and I seem to have less starlings as well.

[Garry]

I put out about 200 g of suet pellets every two days, and fill up my 5 bird seed feeders about the same time.

Feed the birds more this year than last. have about 20 House Sparrows, 2 Robins. Put the suet inside of a cage, otherwise the Wood Pigeons have it all in two minutes.

Garry

[NJ]

I haven't got set times I go out to feed the birds, I just look out the window to see what needs topping up and sort it out as needed.

At the moment I'm putting out a little bit of moist bread, fat balls, mixed seed, apples, and a bit of muesli. The muesli seems to be quite popular, as do the apples at the moment.

[Angelika]

Im feeding birds in my garden,a spot where i take my dog,a spot when i go in town and at the hospital where i work and at the cemetary when i take flowers to my mum.