Poorly chicken

[mullethunter]

I always stop feeding and bring the feeders in at the end of April. But today one of our pairs of goldfinches came to the garden with a baby! It was so cute But they seemed to fly in saying to it 'This is a really good place to get...oh...it's gone!' I know there's plenty of natural food around at the moment, but I felt really sorry for them

[Blackrocksrock]

Actually we feed all year round - peanuts and fat balls - the pleasure we have had with the woodpecker recently has been great and its usually the mother birds who manage to tank up on the peanuts etc - they need their energy. Love seeing the little ones - have a webcam in the shed and the blackbird is on her 2nd clutch in that nest - the third for her this season.

[Chucky Mama]

Please be careful feeding peanuts in the spring and summer. This is the RSPB advice re this:

 

. Avoid using peanuts, fat and bread at this time, since these can be harmful if adult birds feed them to their nestlings. If you feel you must put out peanuts, only do so in suitable mesh feeders that will not allow sizeable pieces of peanuts to be removed and provide a choking risk

[Blackrocksrock]

Yes they are in mesh feeders and its the adults who tank up at night time for their own energy. Likewise the woodpeckers - remember we had snow about 3 weeks ago still and our weather has been pathetic and if we dont feed them they will die = only now is the grass coming and the bugs for the birds to eat. its not been a good spring for them at all.

[dancing cloud]

Constant year-round feeding here too - and peanuts from the proper mesh feeders, mainly so the squirrels can't steal everything.

 

The garden's always busy and we're getting lots of baby birds brought to the buffet by their parents at the moment. Some of them are much better at landing than others and one or two of them have had an unintended dip in the birdbath whilst learning how to perch on a feeder .

[Blackrocksrock]

We have 2 woodpeckers clearing the peanuts daily - they are back even when they are empty and they are obviously really hungry - not enough bugs about. Love to see the babies

[chickencam]

We feed most of the year and have a healthy population of sparrows who occasionally let the blue tits and great tits have some seed too. We only feed mixed seed then fat balls in the winter.

 

We have a pair of blue tits in the box on our garage wall, unfortunately they chose it because it is hidden by bushes but this also lets the cats sit outside the box. We have had successful broods fledge from this box in the past but we have to time when we let the cats out and lock them in at night to give them a fighting chance. Fortunately we have very lazy largely indoor moggies.

[Luvachicken]

I feed all year round too but always bring the seed and nuts in during the baby feeding season.

One year I left them and the blue tits obviously couldn't find enough food so fed the chicks my seed and nuts and the chicks died - I will never know if it was my seed/nuts or just a serious lack of grubs but I always bring them in now.

 

I have found Bird Peanut Butter instead which they all love and is nice and soft.

Live mealworms didn't go down too well so the chickens got those instead.

[Old Speckled Hen]

I feed all year too.

I use Kennedy bird foods sunflower heart and seed mixture which the sparrows don't toss out so there is no waste. That goes in one feeder and sunflower hearts in the other...the goldfinches love that.

When the first lot of nestlings fledge I see the youngsters being fed in the hedges and consumption goes up astronomically.

I get through a kilo of mealworms in 10 days ....we have a robin pair and two blue tit pairs that will take these from my hand. It's lovely to see these getting stuffed down the youngsters in the nest.

Our Red Kites have two chicks and there is a nesting pair in our apiary field. They get day old chicks if the weather has been foul and the parents can't fly far.