Nyger Seed

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.

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...

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

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.

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

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?

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..

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, coz it seems such a waste to be throwing so much seed away weekly.

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