Peanuts being ignored

Hi folks,

Can anyone tell me why none of my birds are using my peanut feeders? I have 2 different types, one in back garden and one in front garden. I am beginning to think I am wasting my money as none of the birds are interested, even during this freezing weather. I end up throwing a lot away when the nuts get soggy.

I also provide sunflower hearts, nyjer seed, high energy mixed seed, dried mealworms, fat balls, sultanas, and my own yukky mix of seeds, crushed fat balls, suet flakes and peanut granules. These attract the house sparrows, starlings, a few tits, robins, dunnocks, blackbirds, my one goldfinch, jackdaws and of course pigeons and collared doves.

  • Well you can add me to your growing list of abandoned nuts.  I ventured out into the garden today to inspect my feeders for filling and found my smaller peanut feeder contents getting quite green and mouldy, so I binned the lot.

    I'm not going to re-fill it for my garden, I will take it to work after Christmas for the Birdies there.

    I'm sure the birds are preferring my fat ball feeders (Green nets removed).  All size birds up to starling are really enjoying those.

  • Anonymous
    0 Anonymous 28/12/2009 03:37 in reply to juno

    I think all of our birds are taking the micky basically, they know we spoil them!

  • Anonymous
    0 Anonymous 28/12/2009 07:11 in reply to juno

    Hi Juno

    Oh dear, as I suspected that the birds so not want to eat Peanuts as much as they want too now. It might be just be a trend with Birds as there is so much in the way of other bird food to choose from in the market place now. Peanuts are no good, unless you have Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatches as they like Peanut Feeders.

    Fat Balls are fine to use,  I sprinkle mine in the food plates within the ground feeders.

    Nothing wrong with Peanut sprinkles instead of whole Peanuts {wink}

    See what happens with the birds you work - you may have a fan club of birds who like nuts there instead.

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

    Juno said:

    Well you can add me to your growing list of abandoned nuts.  I ventured out into the garden today to inspect my feeders for filling and found my smaller peanut feeder contents getting quite green and mouldy, so I binned the lot.

    I'm not going to re-fill it for my garden, I will take it to work after Christmas for the Birdies there.

    I'm sure the birds are preferring my fat ball feeders (Green nets removed).  All size birds up to starling are really enjoying those.

  • I think another factor may be how and where the birds like to eat. Just as an example my chaffinches will happily spend up to 15 minutes at a time eating on site, as do goldfinches, dunnocks, starlings and blackbirds whereas the various tits are more what I call the "grab and go" merchants. That is to say they take the food to the nearest shrub or tree and eat it there. I am lucky in that I perhaps have more time than others to actually watch the birds and their eating patterns and preferences but even with tables the tits still take away rather than eating on site.

  • Squirrel - I find exactly the same as you. I am also lucky to have time to sit and watch the birds - all day if I stay in and choose not to do any housework! My tits come, take a seed, and fly away, then return for another, whereas the others stay and eat all they want, then some of them just sit ontop of the feeding station and have a rest. My sparrows, blackbirds, dunnocks and robins and a few starlings stay all day more or less, and one fat sparrow sits in the tray for his rest. I could swear he is actually asleep!

    When I was a child, my dad spent hours each week threading whole peanuts on strands of cotton, a bit like threading beads. He then hung these in a row from a washing line outside the back window. The blue tits used to come and cling on these and eat their fill. But of course, there was no other way to feed them in those days apart from scraps, so they had no choice but to eat the peanuts.

  • Unknown said:

    Have you taken them out of the packet, as I had difficuly opening a pack of dry roasted in the pub today (sorry).

    I agree with you Nails - some packets do require you to have a degree of some sort in order to open them!

    Unknown said:
    Seriously it may be the type of feeder you are using. I have a few different types

    I have 2 peanut feeders, different types. Both good quality. Which type do you recommend?

  • Hello all!

    Also have the same problem  - only a token interest by tits and starlings of the nuts in my feeder but they will hoover up all the loose broken ones I put out in no time at all.   I do agree with many of you that the birds will go for the easier pickings rather than work on the not so easy.

    I did try putting nut granules in a feeder (a normal seed feeder) on their own but this only ended up clogging the feeder when the moisture set in so now I put them within a seed mix  and just feed them like that.

  • Anonymous
    0 Anonymous 28/12/2009 18:00 in reply to Kezmo

    Hi Kezmo

    Like you. I wonder why the whole nuts are so out of fashion with the birds now.  Not to forget our Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatch friends of course as they like the nuts whole, and intact.

    Maybe there is such as great assortment of foods now that the birds are lost for choice, and as you have said Kezmo they like the easy life.

    I use peanuts granules, and add them to my Ground Feeders.  My Ground Feeders are under a 'plant pot base' shelter (photos shown already in other threads) so the weather such as the rain cannot cause the seed, peanut etc... mixture to go soggy.

    Part of the issue is keeping the food as dry for as long as possible.

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

  • Hi Blackird

    I couldn't agree with you more Kathy - I do have problems keeping my food dry without the bottom of the feeders going all yukky.   Your idea with the plant pot base sounds good for the ground feeders.  I've stopped using a ground feeder now as I was forever having to scrape out all the goo after the rain.  I will reuse it again but perhaps more in the summer.

  • It looks like the peanut problem is a universal one.  I too had been questioning this for some time and thought it was just here; after reading about this here I am wondering if its because of the different variety of foods we all offer the birds, peanuts after all take more work - I bet if we all halved the amount of food the peanuts would go!  Not like we'd do that just to shift some peanuts though eh? ;o)

     

    Even though I still have a bag of peanuts I have given up feeding them from a feeder, it truly was a waste of time and money as no one bothered with them.  Although I'm considering breaking them up and putting them back in the feeder to try them as peanuts have a good calorie content.

     

    if it works I'll have to let you know!