Wild Bird Care

At Barters we have a wonderful selection of bird feeders, various feeds including seeds, mealworms and suet. Bird houses, bee houses, hedgehog shelters and many more wildlife products to help encourage the life in your garden.

Recent converts to attracting birds to our garden, my partner and I have been buying fat balls and seeds.

We had recently moved into a little cottage that has multiple bird feeding stations, hanging feeders, etc, already in the garden and were excited to fill them up with food and look forward to the garden party.

Luckily for the birds we’re both a bit geeky - A little research showed that all the kit we humans introduce to entice the feathered lovelies require maintenance lest we sow the seeds of avian disease.

Yep, birdhouses need to be cleaned annually & feeding stations more frequently.

There is a wealth of information on the ‘net so I will quickly summarise & link to the resources I found.

The issue is disease –

Wear rubber gloves and clean the feeders outside.

A bucket will do nicely – you can use a small amount of bleach/dish-soap in water.

Soak and rinse to remove debris, old seeds &c.

Bottle brush, old toothbrush or similar to scrub off the crud then re-rinse.

Allow to dry fully before adding feed. - Do not put large amounts of seed out – it will get soggy and rot or get eaten by rats.

Consider rotating feeders if you have a few of them.

Move them occasionally to avoid build-up of feces & rotting food underneath.

Also clean the water baths and refill regularly with fresh water.

Clean out bird houses between nestings.

May your birds be chipper and their plumage preened.

Aaron May Nov 2021