Kitchen Garden Forum

I guess a lot of you feed the birds - where do you get the food from?
I've often bought it from a pet food shop near Asda in Colne but haven't been over that way recently so have used all sorts of suppliers - West Cumbria Farmers, Wilkos etc. The mix of seed varies a lot, the WCF stuff I'm using at the moment has a lot of wheat in it, as does the price of this and peanuts.
As we aren't going out much with the cost of fuel and my wife going through chemo I thought I'd try mail order. Yesterday I ordered from Anne Kennedy Pet Supplies http://www.wildbirdfood.uk.com/ and the stuff arrived at 08:20 this morning! Everything looks good with the Economy Wild Bird Mixed Seeds being particularly good with very little wheat and a lot of black sunflower, at just under 63p a kilo delivered I thought it was reasonable. Being cynical I thought somebody who delivers more slowly may be cheaper, bit sad to complain about really good service, so I thought I would ask.

Geoff, if you ever venture that far east, the Blue Barn, Otley Road, Pool-in-Wharfedale (www.bluebarn.co.uk) is very reasonable and the quality is good. They weigh up any quantity you want.
I have also used Haiths of Grimsby (www.haiths.com) for mail order. Again, reasonable prices, good quality and choice of delivery methods.
My experience is confined to peanuts, black sunflower seeds, niger seed and occasional high protein food (ground mealworms with nuts etc). I never buy mixed seeds because I found that the larger seeds were often not eaten at all and I don't want to attract rats to the leftovers.

Ever considered making your own?

you can use the rind of the bacon melted down mixed with oats and peanuts and then put into the nettting you get from oranges.

Tied to my washing line the birds seem to enjoy it.

I don't buy fat balls, just mixed seed, peanuts and some black sunflower which I mix with kitchen crumbs as a ground feed. Keeping about 20 young sparrows alive at the moment, who said they were rare. Get woodpeckers and their young on the peanut feeders and sparrow school sits at the bottom collecting the bits.

We have loads of birds in the garden and I feed them all kinds of things.They love rice,pasta,mash,bits of meat,cheese apples,bananas,pears,bread,dried fruit etc as well as bird seed.We aren't bothered with rodents at all as the birds seem to eat the food as soon as it goes out.