Do you feed the birds

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Turtle989

Turtle989

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Neighbor
Joined
Oct 29, 2023
Messages
14
Location
michigan
I love feeding the birds, but now that we are extremely rural I don't know if I should. I put out a heated bird bath because we don't have any standing water on our property. We recently spotted a bear on a trail cam thats not that far from the house. So there's that. Would you feed them?? Should I just try it? Wait a bit longer til bear hibernates?
 
We feed the birds year round (at least my wife does). There was a recent bear sighting very close to our neighborhood, and we have had coyotes for years, but we are just more careful about letting the dog out. The coyote apparently jumped a fence to attack a dog. We don't like it but it won't stop us from feeding the birds.
 
I have fed the birds from time to time. The squirrels wreak havoc with my feeders. During the pandemic I had lots of birds visit my suet feeders. I saw all kinds, but the wrens especially interested me. I like how small and feisty they are.

This spring magpies were wreaking havoc with my feeders so I stopped feeding them. I had never had so many magpies before. I was hearing wrens, but they weren't coming around because of the magpies. At some point in time I'll start feeding them again.
 
I feed the birds and the squirrels. I had to quit feeding on the lower level because the bear eventually found that food source. The upper deck is high enough to keep the bear away. The dogs love the squirrels and the birds. If your bird feeders are high enough the bears shouldn't be a problem.

We have had a couple recent visits from a cat that my dog loves to chase off and then whines for it to come back.
 
One time I told a very conservative friend that I was thinking of putting out a bird feeder, his reply, "So you're going to make democrats out of them.". Our son and his girlfriend gave my wife a bird feeder, I hung in out on our deck and then moved it due to extremely messy birds and their deposits, another issue is wild bird feed is rather expensive, so we mostly let birds find their own food.
 
Tonight I fed 2 opossums, 5 cats 2 raccoons, several mice, and a retarded armadillo.
Roscoe and Maude think they live here, Hoover cleans the carpet for me, the cats warm the bed, and @#%$! craps right where I step in it.

Roscoe and Hoover have discovered that if they answer to their names, they get beer, Roscoe is smart enough to stand there and make little grabby motions with his (hands?) Until I call him then he stares at the fridge until I pop a Michelob and pour him a tuna can full. Hoover just tries to muscle in and gets his butt kicked. drunk wildlife is a riot!
 
We feed the birds and the squirrels during the winter months. Since the food is a huge bear magnet, we put the feeders away before the bears typically wake up. There have been a couple years where we weren’t quick enough putting them away and the bears hung around for a bit looking for free food.
 
Magus said:
Tonight I fed 2 opossums, 5 cats 2 raccoons, several mice, and a retarded armadillo.
Roscoe and Maude think they live here, Hoover cleans the carpet for me, the cats warm the bed, and @#%$! craps right where I step in it.

r
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I agree with you on a lot of stuff...but not this..sorry. Your "pets" would be my varmints....

And yes I feed the birds, but usually only in winter
we have lots of beautiful songbirds here all different colors too
Our dogs will dispatch any cat that dares to come on the property so the birds are safe, never seen a dog try to get a bird, they do get rabbits and squirrels sometimes
no wait we have had Rosie the livestock dog catch a few pigeons in the barn but I told her to stop and stick to the groundhogs
 
I feed the birds when the ground is covered in snow.
Come spring they are on their own again.
We don't have a big verity of birds. Mostly house or gold finches, chickadees and occasionally a red wing black bird.
Black oil sunflower seeds are around $30 for a 40# bag and nyjer of thistle is $80 for a 50 # bag so it's expensive.
Those are last years prices so it's probably more this year.
 
backlash said:
I feed the birds when the ground is covered in snow.
Come spring they are on their own again.
We don't have a big verity of birds. Mostly house or gold finches, chickadees and occasionally a red wing black bird.
Black oil sunflower seeds are around $30 for a 40# bag and nyjer of thistle is $80 for a 50 # bag so it's expensive.
Those are last years prices so it's probably more this year.
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My birds are getting 4 year old corn flakes. If they don't like them they can come up with some cash and I'll pick up whatever they want. I still have some old mixed nuts for the squirrels. They aren't picky, and the bear that stole the squirrel nuts sure wasn't picky. I don't spend a lot of money on bird food. I've got some old dry bread set aside.
 
Caribou said:
My birds are getting 4 year old corn flakes. If they don't like them they can come up with some cash and I'll pick up whatever they want. I still have some old mixed nuts for the squirrels. They aren't picky, and the bear that stole the squirrel nuts sure wasn't picky. I don't spend a lot of money on bird food. I've got some old dry bread set aside.
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My deer eat all old bread, cereal, chips, etc.! I have several older folks I clean for who save stuff like that for my deer!!
 
Pearl said:
My deer eat all old bread, cereal, chips, etc.! I have several older folks I clean for who save stuff like that for my deer!!
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Some deer hear my truck coming down the road (it makes a weird noise, no, not Taylor Swift) and Chase me home to see what I have for them!!
 
I used to put out bird feed as much of the year as possible.. Possible translating to between the time bears den up to the time bears un den... I had about a 2x3' open feed station with a roof.. All this about 2' off the ground..

I had the scruffiest rough grouse you ever seen stay around pretty much the whole feeding season.. They were fun to watch.. Even with my bad, bad hearing I could hear them drum in the spring as they searched for mates.. Again, everything centered around bear activity.. You do what you can depending on local circumstances..
 
I feed the birds and thoroughly enjoy watch them and listening to them when it’s warm enough to have the doors open. We also feed deer. We have a herd of 5 that show up at our place. I do buy deer corn for them.
 
Pearl said:
Yes, all banana peels go to the deer here!!
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The moose love pumpkin, have you ever tried pumpkin on deer? The wife won't let me feed the moose anymore.
 
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Deer like banana peel... My mistake on that one.. Never noticed deer and banana peels.. But I do know chickens like them..

I never deliberately fed moose.. However I did scatter a bag of cheap bird seed and a little perennial rye in a patch I disc up.. It seems the moose liked it OK as my intent was to keep them away from several new fruit and berry bushes that were planted and surrounded with wire cages.. I think the moose just considered it all part of the meal..
 
Tim Horton said:
Deer like banana peel... My mistake on that one.. Never noticed deer and banana peels.. But I do know chickens like them..

I never deliberately fed moose.. However I did scatter a bag of cheap bird seed and a little perennial rye in a patch I disc up.. It seems the moose liked it OK as my intent was to keep them away from several new fruit and berry bushes that were planted and surrounded with wire cages.. I think the moose just considered it all part of the meal..
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I only semi-deliberately fed the moose. I kept my mouth shut when the wife decorated for Halloween. Boy, did she freak out when she figured it out.
 
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