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Niger feeder recommendation
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? Cheers Dave R -- Pan in Vista on second Vista PC. |
Niger feeder recommendation
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? Cheers Dave R I don't know of one that the finches will not spill as much as they eat. So my recommendation is to ensure that you can attach a large tray to catch spillage. Then (e.g.) woodpigeons will keep the tray cleared... Mike. -- If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@" and substitute "plus" for +. |
Niger feeder recommendation
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? I use a droll yankee one mounted on a pole but it could hung from the top, I choose the twenty perch one as Goldfinches often come in large numbers but shorter ones will work just as well. Niger seed is so fine that even with the tiny slit holes in a Niger feeder some still gets dropped. A catch tray is a must. Most sold by the various feeder makers are way overpriced IMHO. A large plastic pot plant saucer drilled in the middle and a number of drainage holes is far cheaper if you have the tools. G.Harman |
Niger feeder recommendation
"Mike Coon" wrote in message o.uk... 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? Cheers Dave R I don't know of one that the finches will not spill as much as they eat. So my recommendation is to ensure that you can attach a large tray to catch spillage. Then (e.g.) woodpigeons will keep the tray cleared... Mike. -- If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@" and substitute "plus" for +. This one http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...=0CHoQ8wIwCDgK the "Cranswick Pet Products All Seasons Nyger Feeder" seems to suit my goldfinches. As Mike said either be prepared for spillage or attach a tray. Filling it can be a little fiddly. The whole tube is drilled with lots of tiny holes. The manufacturer includes a plastic insert which you insert, fill the tube and then remove. However, you'll still get some leakage as you remove the insert and I've found that holding the feeder without the insert over the box I keep the seed in and simply filling it like any other feeder results in much quicker filling and the spillage/leakage that occurs then falls back into the box. |
Niger feeder recommendation
"David.WE.Roberts" wrote in message ... 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? Cheers Dave R -- Pan in Vista on second Vista PC. Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single finch on mine - total waste of money. Bill |
Niger feeder recommendation
Bill Grey wrote:
Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single finch on mine - total waste of money. Bill I have to admit mine was never popular. On the other hand the teazels get used each autumn/winter and they come free. A bit of a long-term project, though... (BTW I notice that more than usual have been sprouting while still upright on their stems in this damp summer. That was how I initially found one in the countryside to take home and plant!) Mike. -- If reply address is (invalid), remove spurious "@" and substitute "plus" for +. |
Niger feeder recommendation
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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
On Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:36:25 -0000, "Mike Coon"
wrote: Bill Grey wrote: Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single finch on mine - total waste of money. Bill I have to admit mine was never popular. On the other hand the teazels get used each autumn/winter and they come free. I "refill" some well pecked teasels with a sprinkling of Nyger seed. Finches seem to like it. G.Harman |
Niger feeder recommendation
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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
On Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:20:51 -0000, Janet wrote:
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). I just drop them over like you would hundreds and thousands on a cake. Enough seem to drop in far enough to stay, I do buy my seed in a 25kg sack so may a bit more liberal with it than I should. G.Harman |
Niger feeder recommendation
On Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:03:21 -0000, "Bill Grey"
wrote: "David.WE.Roberts" wrote in message ... 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? Cheers Dave R -- Pan in Vista on second Vista PC. Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single finch on mine - total waste of money. Bill 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! Pam in Bristol |
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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. You could try kibbled sunflower hearts. They are liked by goldfinches (in some areas of the country, preferred to nyger) but taken by other species. |
Niger feeder recommendation
On 2013-01-18 17:46:00 +0000, Anne Burgess said:
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 We've had a Nyger feeder up for two years and I think the squirrels probably take the seed. I've never seen a single finch on it. But they come to the garden towards the end of summer. -- Sacha www.hillhousenursery.com South Devon www.helpforheroes.org.uk |
Niger feeder recommendation
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Niger feeder recommendation
"Bill Grey" wrote in message ... "David.WE.Roberts" wrote in message ... 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? Cheers Dave R -- Pan in Vista on second Vista PC. Good luck with your Niger/Nyger seed feeder I haven't seen a single finch on mine - total waste of money. Bill Would you believe it? Having just written the above, a Coal Tit was seen feeding on my Nyger seed feeder. Hopefully he will atract others. Bill |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
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 +. |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
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. |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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. |
Niger feeder recommendation
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 |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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. |
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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. |
Niger feeder recommendation
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? |
Niger feeder recommendation
"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/ |
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