Cleaning Feeders

Everybody has a different opinion when it comes to cleaning bird feeders. I’ve read that feeders should be cleaned every 3 weeks, every month, I have a customer who scrubs and disinfects the tube feeders every time they’re refilled. When people ask me when they should clean their feeders I tell them, “When they’re dirty.” I’m not trying to be funny, why clean your feeder if it isn’t dirty? Some feeders need to be cleaned more often, certain designs either catch bird droppings or allow the seed to get wet. So check the feeder for droppings, especially where the birds will be eating. It’s also a good idea to dump out the remaining seed before you refill, you can dump it on the ground for sparrows and doves or if you’re trying to keep your pigeons to a minimum, dump it into a bucket and make sure it is clean, dry and not clumping. Before refilling the feeder, inspect it for the dust and dirt, clumped seed and poop. You may be able to dump this out if you check at every refill and you’ll lengthen the time between major cleanings.

If things are looking and or smelling a little off, now is the time to break out the brushes and bleach. Remember though that bleach doesn’t disinfect in the presence of organic matter so you have to get all the junk out with soap and water first, then soak feeders in a 1 part bleach to 9 parts water solution.

The type of seed also makes a big difference in the length of time between major cleanings. Seed mixes, especially those containing cracked corn will have to be cleaned more often, cracked corn goes to mush in wet and humid weather and the uneaten portions of the mixes will eventually spoil.

All the way to the other end of the price list is hulled sunflower, but it too fouls up the feeders in a hurry, same reason as the cracked corn, the waterproofing is removed. I think feeding hulled sunflower in extra large or poorly designed feeders is a waste of money. My favourite feeder for hulled sunflower is the Aspects medium tube, it’s not too big, has a great seed deflector on the bottom to keep the seed flowing toward the holes, is very waterproof and has a quick release base for easy cleaning. (And a lifetime warranty.)

Feeders with the quick release base will go longer between major cleanings if you remove the base every time you refill and wipe out the dust before it turns to goo. You can do it with one hand, even when you’re wearing gloves.

There is lots of advice and information on cleaning bird feeders, less however on cleaning the ground under them. The feeders I use don’t get very dirty at all, but the ground sure does. Since I don’t use trays, the hulls and poop go to the ground under the feeders. For the most part the lawn mower bagger takes care of the mess in the summer and the snow blower does a great job in winter but there is still some mess left behind.

One of the reasons people tell me they feed mixed seed is to give the ground feeders something to eat when it gets tossed out. The problem with this is, unless you mix your own seed, there is likely to be junk filler in the mix that nothing eats. This waste lays under your feeder mixing with the bird poop, breeding all sorts of microorganisms. I think it’s more hygienic to feed the ground feeding birds in a separate area where they aren’t eating off the mess or being poop bombed from above. You can also control the amount of seed, making sure there isn’t too much or too little.

Be careful when cleaning under bird feeders, the danger isn’t from touching the stuff it comes from inhaling airborne spores. It’s very rare to get sick, but it could happen. It may be as simple as not raking when the droppings are very dry and be conscious of which way the wind is blowing, keep up wind from the dust. Even on the lawn mower, it comes second nature to me to blow the junk with the wind; growing up we cut 5 acres of lawn so I spent most of my teen years on a tractor lawn mower. We also had an almost 200 pound Newfoundland dog, when the you hit one of his old dried out bowel movements, it was like hitting a white ant hill. You soon learned to blow the grass with the wind when you were cutting over his favourite place.

Be careful too if you’re brushing out any of you feeders with a dry brush, don’t do it indoors and stay up wind.

More than a decade ago there was a huge invasion of Common Redpoll, a small percentage of these birds were being found sick around feeders stations. A warning went out to disinfect all bird feeders, I suggested to also move the feeders to a new area but was told by the experts, that wouldn’t make any difference. I still disagree, what would be a greater danger of transmitting disease, the inside of a nyjer tube that has never contacted a bird and it’s droppings or the ground beneath where hundreds of birds have been eating and pooping? What could be easier? When you hang it back out, put it on a different branch. I do it all the time and there is little mess and no dead grass under the feeders. On the iron hangers, I move them closer to the house for winter, but throughout the year I rotate around the yard, leaving one or two stations empty for a while, I have lots of feeders and it’s easier than moving the post.

When I feed on the ground, I change the location every time I scatter seed.

I often suggest feeding millet within a brush pile to keep pigeons away. A brush pile is a sparrow magnet by itself, but scatter millet inside it and they go wild. The problem with a brush pile though, you can’t always tell how funky things are getting inside and it’s not easy to move to a new location...or is it, I making one now that is portable. I started with a frame 2 feet by 4 feet for the bottom and nailed thicker twigs to make a pup tent like structure over it, then nail smaller branches from the bottom to the top cross piece. If none of the openings are over 2 ¾ inches, the pigeons won’t be able to get inside. With everything securely attached, you can drag it to a new location periodically. Since it has to be a little smaller than some brush piles you may want to feed on a ground tray to keep the seed in the middle, this way pigeons won’t be able to reach the seed from the outside. You may want to make one or two of the twigs removable so you can access the seed.

Last week’s quiz was the most fun I’ve had for a long time, I issued a challenge to New Brunswick naturalists and I proud to say that you readers are ahead of them by about 15%. As of Wednesday, there still hasn’t been anyone with a 100% score, (although one person did come close, the judges ruled that the answers to true and false questions shouldn’t be ambiguous.) If you haven’t done it yet you can find the quiz on line at timestranscript.com or there’s a direct link to the quiz (and my ribbing of the naturalist community) at twitter.com/thebirdgarden or e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.

I wish I knew how to do one of those “answer on line quizzes”, I don’t, but many of you showed me that you could paste it into an email, answer it then send it to me. If you didn’t get 100%, you may try again and I’ll enter each quiz in the draw, so the more times you try, the better odds at the draw. You’ll see that I’ve offered an additional $20 gift card to the first (clear) perfect score and you’ll likely be alone in that category so you could get $40 and believe me, bragging rights.

I’ll take entries up to midnight October 1, as the answers and explanations will be in the next days paper. I’ll announce the winners in the October 9 column. Who knows, maybe we can get a picture of the winners with those giant novelty cheques.