I have 2 of these feeders (see photos below) but both are terrible for just letting the hearts fall out so much that it is costing me a fortune in sunflower hearts. Does anyone know of a better design which actually may keep the hearts from falling out. Just to add i have a tray fixed under the yellow one which helps a bit but cannot do anything with the green one as its a bottom opening one...Cheers Colin
Regards Colin
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Hi Colin.
I have no trouble with this kind of feeder regarding spillage....just the usual discarded shucks and alike depending on which feed i put in.
I'd recommend this type but sorry cant help with the name... Sunflower Hearts sit nicely within.
Hope your days are good
Regards
Dan.
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Do your feeders have a threaded hole at the bottom? Many of them do and you can purchase the tray (with bolt) to fix to the base of the feeder. The birds will then also feed from the tray and you will save a fortune.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Thanks for the advice guys, I must have messy birds as i have tried standard feeders with sunflower hearts in with very limited success. Regarding your advice Mc as i said i already have a tray on the yellow one which does help a little but the green one is a bottom fed one so you cannot put anything on it. Will look around as the so called specialist Sunflower heart feeders like the 2 i have are very poor indeed as the holes in the wire mess are simply too big....Cheers Colin
This one is popular with my Goldies;
I find even with the sunflower feeders with the ports I loose an awful lot of seed on the ground the birds tend to drop not only husks but a lot of seed on the ground!!!
I have now purchased a large feeder tray from the RSPB that fits my 6 port feeder using the screw thread that belongs to another tray I have, and its amazing how much it saves!!!
But unfortunatly cannot get trays to fit two of my other sunflower feeders.
The feeder in the photo Maria ,looks to be a good design, do they make larger ones??
I haven't seen a larger one, I have had this one a couple of years now.
I have the same one as Maria and it's excellent for the goldies. Only four can feed at a time but some will eat from the ground feeder and chaffinches hoover up fallen seeds.
I'd have another if I had a bigger garden. It's easy to fill and take apart to clean. In cold weather the birds will empty it in a day. I check it and top it up every morning. The bottom tray needs to be emptied of husks.
I turn over the ground and use a little sand and grit on the top surface when the build up of husks gets too much (clay soil near a wall in a boggy area). I get fat worms in my garden who hate it when I dig!
I use the RSPB terracotta apple feeder, which works really well.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Thanks for all you replies, as i mainly get 10 or more Goldfinches / Redpolls on the large green Supa feeder i will be looking for a feeder that pretty large, will take a trip to Charlies later and see what they have that's suitable.
Ok i have bought one of these (see below) from my local Charlies store, its a 12 port 450mm feeder so plenty of room for the finches and i have filled the bottom 2 compartments up with sunflower hearts and the top compartment up with Gardmans finch blend. I will buy a large plant pot tray tomorrow from B&q and fit it on the bottom to stop the spills. Its surely got to be better than the other one i had which was emptying in a day (most of it on the floor) cause the holes in the mesh were too large.