Peanuts and feeders/stashes

[DMF235-Belfast]

Hello all, doubt anyone would know for sure on this but thought i'd check... initially when I put peanuts out it was in a fairly large chapelwood feeder but the mesh was soo bid that the peanuts rather easily fell through/ got took whole... and as my main visitors are coal/blue and great tits they seemed to like nothing more than topping up their winter stashes. (Doves didnt seem to mind them either)

Now that was getting fairly expensive, when the cold weather hits i'll probably bring it back, but during the summer i didnt want kg's of peanuts rotting in the tree's behing me. But the actual peanut small mesh feede that i got since is still fairly popular but obviously more work for less reward. Now I barely put more than an inch or so in it because i dont want them mouldy. Then after a few days / a week i'll empty them into a tray and refresh them. Now they arent mouldy but they usually look a more damp colour, if they put them into the stashs would they speed up the moulding process? do the stahes of peanuts without the shell last for them anyway?

Cheers

[Littlesparrow]

Some people get on with peanut feeders, but i have given up with them because I wasn't happy with them going moldy. During the good weather I use wild bird seed put on a fine mesh wire tray up in a tree, and I put some seed on top of the animal runs, this way all the seed goes and isn't hanging about.
Now it is getting colder I have put out a fat and seed block which is also in a wire cage, and soon i will put up some hanging feeders and fat balls ( in a hanger,not in nylon mesh)
Sometimes I put half an apple on the tray in the tree for the black birds, and I grow soft fruit and berries which encourage the birds.
I always have water in a bird bath and I have a pond with a shallow edge.

[Hedera]

Try smashing the peanuts a bit and mix them in with seed, either in feeders or on a tray. Keep to small amounts every other day or so.

[Harold Smith]

Years ago I used to put out peanuts but the birds never really took to them so the nuts would go mouldy in the feeder. I reduced the size of the feeder but it did not make any difference. It was mainly Blue Tits that fed on them but even the smaller nut feeder was too large for them to consume the peanuts before they became unpalatable.

So I gave up and put out what was left on the ground feeder, a handful at a time. The Magpies would come and pick them up and place them in my flower border which was a waste of time as another Magpie would come along, dig them up and put them in another part of the border. To me it was an amusing but pointless exercise. However, the peanuts gradually disappeared. For all I know there maybe Peanut trees appearing all over the countryside but I think not.

These days I do not put out peanuts. I use a mixed feed, containing crushed peanuts, which I put in all my feeders including the ground feeders. All sorts of common garden birds are attracted. Today there were, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, lots of House Sparrows, Robins, Collard Doves, Chaffinches, Dunnocks, Carrion Crows, Magpies, Wood Pigeons and Feral Pigeons who are bullies and would prefer they went elsewhere. Even the Wood Mouse, living under some stones at the edge of the garden, takes advantage of the spillage. As the food is quickly eaten there is no time for any of it to go mouldy.

Harold.

[actionfinch]

My mum told me that she has a novelty strawberry shapped mesh feeder, and that all the while she had it nothing was coming to it. upon investigation mouldy peanuts.. i told her to keep it clean i washed it for her , and today she saw 2 blue tits on it for the first time...
My peanut feeder has the odd blue tit, nuthatch i keep an eye on it to stop it goin mouldy , but normaly keep it topped up.I dont think they would miss it if i took it down mind. the other thing is the squirell likes it and have noticed minor damage where they hay tried to knaw there way through it..
A squirrell box topped up every day keeps them amuzed as well as the odd tit scrounging a dropped peanut or two...