"Janet" wrote in message
...
In article , damduck-
says...



I "refill" some well pecked teasels with a sprinkling of Nyger seed.

Finches seem to like it.

How do you get the seeds to stick/stay in? (I've got some teazel
skeletons in the garden).

Janet

I wonder if it is feasible for you to coat the teasels with some olive oil
applied by rubbing an oily hand oer the skeletons. The nyger seed should
stick to that.

Bill

Bill Grey wrote:
I wonder if it is feasible for you to coat the teasels with some
olive oil applied by rubbing an oily hand oer the skeletons. The
nyger seed should stick to that.

Bill

Even better might be a cook's oil-spray basting device...

Mike.
--
If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@"
and substitute "plus" for +.

"Mike Coon" wrote in message
...
Bill Grey wrote:
I wonder if it is feasible for you to coat the teasels with some
olive oil applied by rubbing an oily hand oer the skeletons. The
nyger seed should stick to that.

Bill

Even better might be a cook's oil-spray basting device...

Mike.
--
If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@"
and substitute "plus" for +.

Certainly less messy

Bill

On 19/01/2013 15:48, Bill Grey wrote:
"Mike Coon" wrote in message
...
Bill Grey wrote:
I wonder if it is feasible for you to coat the teasels with some
olive oil applied by rubbing an oily hand oer the skeletons. The
nyger seed should stick to that.

Bill

Even better might be a cook's oil-spray basting device...

Mike.
--
If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@"
and substitute "plus" for +.

Certainly less messy

Bill


Just mix the seed with a little melted lard and work that into the
teasel heads.

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 19/01/2013 15:48, Bill Grey wrote:
"Mike Coon" wrote in message
...
Bill Grey wrote:
I wonder if it is feasible for you to coat the teasels with some
olive oil applied by rubbing an oily hand oer the skeletons. The
nyger seed should stick to that.

Bill

Even better might be a cook's oil-spray basting device...

Mike.
--
If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@"
and substitute "plus" for +.

Certainly less messy

Bill


Just mix the seed with a little melted lard and work that into the teasel
heads.

I would have thought nyger seed are too fine for this sort of trreatment,
but it is one way of dealing with the task.

Bill

"Anne Burgess" wrote in message
...
Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single
finch on mine - total waste of money.
Bill

It took quite a while with mine before the Goldfinches found it. Now
they're here in large numbers every day, and other birds also eat the
Nyjer.

Anne
I never had much luck with nyger.
I carry on with canary seed/sunflower hearts 50/50 mix. Very popular with
all tits and finches.
I have a thingie that chops up peanuts - it's a chilli cutter but it makes
peanuts into crumbs for the robins and the blackbirds like them too along
with sultanas. Robins will never starve here, they get into my chicken run
and eat the layers pellets.

On 19/01/2013 09:50, kay wrote:

'Pam Moore[_2_ Wrote:
;976930']

I also bought some niger seed, filled the feeder and waited..........
After a week the feeder was still full.
I emptied the seed out into a bag to give to a friend who does have
finches and refilled the tube with seed mix.
I looked up niger seed to see what it would grow into and it is a
boring coltsfoot/dandelion-looking type of flower. I wasted my money!


You were far too impatient! Three weeks is a more sensible time to allow
for a goldfinch who doesn't normally visit your garden to stray off
route, pluck up courage to investigate something that doesn't look like
his normal source of food, and then incorporate it into his regular
route.

It took my finches a couple of weeks, and they were visiting regularly
for the lavender. Now they are part of the garden furniture - it's
difficult to be in the garden without seeing them.[/i][/color]

Spot on. They are somewhat shy little birds who are wary of anything
new at first. But once one (and it only takes one...) has found the
feeder it will come back and will attract others. We had 6 fighting to
get on our 2-station feeder in the front garden a couple of days ago.
They were generally ignoring the feeder in the back garden, but
occasionally that gets a couple of goldfinches.

Occasionally the odd sparrow or blue tit will visit the niger feeders,
but they soon lose interest.

--

Jeff

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 19/01/2013 09:50, kay wrote:

'Pam Moore[_2_ Wrote:
;976930']

I also bought some niger seed, filled the feeder and waited..........
After a week the feeder was still full.
I emptied the seed out into a bag to give to a friend who does have
finches and refilled the tube with seed mix.
I looked up niger seed to see what it would grow into and it is a
boring coltsfoot/dandelion-looking type of flower. I wasted my money!


You were far too impatient! Three weeks is a more sensible time to allow
for a goldfinch who doesn't normally visit your garden to stray off
route, pluck up courage to investigate something that doesn't look like
his normal source of food, and then incorporate it into his regular
route.

It took my finches a couple of weeks, and they were visiting regularly
for the lavender. Now they are part of the garden furniture - it's
difficult to be in the garden without seeing them.

Spot on. They are somewhat shy little birds who are wary of anything new
at first. But once one (and it only takes one...) has found the feeder it
will come back and will attract others. We had 6 fighting to get on our
2-station feeder in the front garden a couple of days ago. They were
generally ignoring the feeder in the back garden, but occasionally that
gets a couple of goldfinches.

Occasionally the odd sparrow or blue tit will visit the niger feeders, but
they soon lose interest.

--

Jeff[/i][/color]

Shy? I'll agree it took a while for the goldfinches to discover my niger.
Even then they were irregular visitors but last year I started using
sunflower seed as well and now they are regular visitors using both the
niger and sunflower feeders. But shy? I don't think so. Stolid is a
word I'd use. They take up residence of a perch of a feeder and get stuck
in, stop for a rest, carry on, have another rest, etc. All this time other
small birds are appearing and trying to take up residence. A lot of the
time the goldfinches simply ignore the intruders, occasionally they stretch
a wing to persuade another bird to back off. They only retreat when a
starling appears. The local woodpecker has a similar approach - gets stuck
into the peanuts and won't allow anyone else on "his" feeder.

Yes, that's my experience too - the goldfinches won't bother to leave the feeder unless you're closer than about 10ft, and even then they' hang around in the nearest small tree till you get out of the way. The only things that glue themselves more firmly to a feeder are greenfinches, who will stay a good 15 mins (although they're a bit more nervous about humans)

Long tailed tits are even tamer - it's easy to find yourself in the middle of a flock, with the nearest birds only 3-4 ft away.

rbel wrote in message ...
On 18 Jan 2013 14:03:32 GMT, "David.WE.Roberts"
wrote:

Having read recommendations to use Niger seed I have just bought some.

The seed is so fine I doubt it will stay in my cheap and cheerful vertical
plastic tube.

I can see specialist Niger feeders on line.

Any recommendations?

If you know that you have Goldfinches in the area then go for Droll
Yankee, if not I suggest that you buy a cheaper, perhaps plastic,
feeder to start with and when it wears out replace it with a Droll
Yankee.
--
rbel

?? What is a Droll Yankee?

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

rbel wrote in message ...
On 18 Jan 2013 14:03:32 GMT, "David.WE.Roberts"
wrote:

Having read recommendations to use Niger seed I have just bought some.

The seed is so fine I doubt it will stay in my cheap and cheerful
vertical
plastic tube.

I can see specialist Niger feeders on line.

Any recommendations?

If you know that you have Goldfinches in the area then go for Droll
Yankee, if not I suggest that you buy a cheaper, perhaps plastic,
feeder to start with and when it wears out replace it with a Droll
Yankee.
--
rbel

?? What is a Droll Yankee?


they make bird feeders http://www.drollyankees.com/