Feeding and enjoying the wild birds in your backyard is supposed to be fun and relaxing. However it can become a chore to clean beneath the feeders.
On the ground seed husks collect along with discarded bird seed. You may have noticed our feathered friends pick through the seed for their favorite morsel. Some of the seed is actually meant to be chucked to the ground by the songbirds for the ground birds to eat. These include gains like millet and corn. If you let this pile of seeds and husks collect too long you'll have a mess that must be cleaned up to prevent diseases.
There are two easy fixes to avoid cleaning up the mess. These are:
1) Use a no-mess seed like the PatioWise we sell here at the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek. This product only uses delicious seed with no hulls. Basically, everything gets eaten, even if it gets thrown to the ground!
2) Another simple solution is to add a seed tray, or seed catcher like the two shown below. Notice in the picture there are two small plates attached to the feeders. These catch all the seed before it hits the ground. You can simply tip the plate to collect the seed in the plate and put it back in the feeder!
Seed trays come in many different shapes and sizes. We have some in the store over 22" in length. There are large round ones and square ones. There are hanging trays that attached with hooks to your feeders and ones that mount to your shepherd's hooks. In other words there is probably one for you.
So don't despair, let nature relax you while keeping your ground under the feeders clean. Buy a seed catcher and stop doing a least this one little chore.
David Peterson is the owner of the Best Nest of Georgia, Inc. which includes in its corporate family a retail store called the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek Georgia. The Wild Bird Center focuses on bringing nature to your backyard using bird seed, bird feeders, mealworms, and bird houses to attract wild birds to your yard. You can reach the Wild Bird Center at 770-418-1990 or by contacting David via email: david@thebestnest.net
