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Nyger Seed

rcbeacons
05/09/2011 15:34

Advice please?! We have been very successful with mixed seed and fat balls in our small suburban garden in Hampshire, attracting sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, plus other birds who hoover up underneath, like the robin, dunnocks, wood pigeons and collared doves. A very occasional greenfinch. But when we put out nyger seed in early July, in a brand new feeder, we had no customers at all for a month! We have gone back to mixed seed. Any ideas, whether or when we should try the nyger seed again? Thanks.

  • 06/09/2011 00:47 in reply to bramble67

    My nyjer usually remains untouched during the summer, but goes quite quickly in the winter because of the sheer number of goldies and redpolls I get. (Showing off here LOL). The goldies only eat sunflower hearts in the summer, but eat both equally in the winter. The redpolls only eat the nyjer, with just an odd exception.

    Cheers, Linda.

    See my photos on Flickr

  • 06/09/2011 04:32 in reply to Sparrow

    My goldfinches eat nyger seed all year in huge quantities, so I am not in quite the same position as others. As the sunflower hearts get low in the feeders, the goldies use the nyger seed to keep them going till I have filled up again. Also if the sunflower heart feeders are full, the nyger seed is used by the others who can't wait for their turn!

    Doggie and Sparrow, I buy huge bags of nyger seed, but am very grateful for your link Sparrow - anything I can save is great, although I have a local supplier who does offer some very competitive prices.

    I agree with everyone else about not putting nyger seed out at all unless you have goldies coming to the feeders.

    What an awful mess the seed makes! But where would we be without our little finches...

    bye for now

  • 06/09/2011 05:56

    I had the same problem, then I changed to white sunflower hearts. It is also placed out in the open in the middle of the lawn. Result now have so many Goldfinches with there young eating both hearts and nyger seed.

    Just love it.........

    Robert

  • 06/09/2011 16:15 in reply to Lolly_24

    Last winter I used up some dried out nyjer by adding it to my fat cake mix, although I have to say my lot don't seem to mind if it's gone a bit dry I don't buy it in bulk though. There was a warning on a thread a month or two ago about adding oil to nyjer - to be careful not to over do the oil as it does more harm than good.

    Cheers, Linda.

    See my photos on Flickr

  • 06/09/2011 19:39 in reply to Lolly_24

    lorraine r said:
    Hi Sparrow, That is interesting about the warning of the oil.

    Hi Lolly,

    This is the thread where Ian the Mod gave us the warning about adding oil to seeds.

    http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/f/14005/p/50545/337640.aspx#337640

    Cheers, Linda.

    See my photos on Flickr

  • 03/05/2022 15:38
    A few times last month (early April), I spotted a couple of goldfinches feeding on my mixed seed feeder, but they were struggling to get in amongst all the aggressive Spuggies (Geordie word for sparrows).

    So... I instantly bought a nyjer feeder to add to the ever growing bird food court in my garden, (including a HUGE bag of nyjer seeds).

    Needless to say, I've not seen a Goldfinch since (about 3-4 weeks now) and the nyjer just isn't moving, so it's not like I'm just missing them.

    How long will it be until the seeds in the nyjer feeder go "off"?

    And... when should I just admit defeat and give the feeder and remaining seed to someone else to try elsewhere?
  • 03/05/2022 16:10 in reply to Dingledoodie
    Just in case you're not aware, this thread is 11 years old.... but I guess it's still relevant. Where I used to live we had a communal garden, I fed sunflower hearts, and friends fed nyger seed and we had gold, green and chaffinch (and even a bullfinch family for 1 year) that fed from both. The feeders were no more than 10 yards apart, but when our friends moved, we inherited their nyger feeder and food, but hung from our feeding pole it never got touched, but the sunflower heart intake increased. Very odd... and we palmed the nyger off to my mum and dad lol
    Depending on your weather I'd only partially fill it, and change it at least weekly, more if it's got wet..
  • 03/05/2022 16:24 in reply to PimperneBloke
    Ah, I didn't realise it was a really old thread, I just Googled my issue and it brought me here. On my phone it only shows the first three numbers of the year that the comment was posted.

    Thanks for replying though. I'll definitely start putting less in the feeder for a while. Fingers crossed the Goldfinches catch on and I'll need to start filling it again, Fingers crossed tone1 coz it seems such a waste to be throwing so much seed away weekly.
  • 03/05/2022 16:53
    Hold onto it. The seed should be ok until the late autumn - at this time of year they are more likely to go for Sunflower hearts if they are coming in

    Cin J