I want to get some bird feeders up round our garden but our garden isn’t far from a small river. My concern is will it encourage rats etc from the river???
I’m hoping some of you guys can relate to this. I’m just thinking of making something similar to the square caged in feeders above, but have a flat plate on the bottom (to catch anything falling) so the feed can’t fall to the floor, then I’ll just have to clear it every so often.
Mine has been updated - and has a tray on the bottom. [it's a pizza/chip tray which has little holes in it] The right hand side is a lift up door, which also provides some extra protection from the prevailing wind/rain. It also has a green roof
I also bought some fine metal mesh from an online supplier, which I could have used for the base instead, but I made trays for the sunflower heart feeders as the goldfinches are very messy!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Oh sorry @Fairygirl I didn’t realise they were your pics! Yep this looks like a great idea! I presume you don’t get too much mess below the feeders then???
This should solve my problem I guess. What do you think @Fairygirl ???
I did get a lot of seed in the planting below the cage. The main problem was the big fat wood pigeons trampling over everything to get at it! There's very little seed among the planting now and the pigeons can reach the stuff that falls on the path, or eat the food in the ground feeding tray. I've never had rats so it's hard to say. Food lying around at night certainly can attract them, so you'd probably just need to be vigilant. They can be quite determined if their own food supply is compromised - in a hard winter or similar.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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I want to get some bird feeders up round our garden but our garden isn’t far from a small river. My concern is will it encourage rats etc from the river???
I’m hoping some of you guys can relate to this. I’m just thinking of making something similar to the square caged in feeders above, but have a flat plate on the bottom (to catch anything falling) so the feed can’t fall to the floor, then I’ll just have to clear it every so often.
Does that make sense? And what do you think?
Regards!
I also bought some fine metal mesh from an online supplier, which I could have used for the base instead, but I made trays for the sunflower heart feeders as the goldfinches are very messy!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
This should solve my problem I guess. What do you think @Fairygirl ???
Thank you again!
There's very little seed among the planting now and the pigeons can reach the stuff that falls on the path, or eat the food in the ground feeding tray.
I've never had rats so it's hard to say. Food lying around at night certainly can attract them, so you'd probably just need to be vigilant. They can be quite determined if their own food supply is compromised - in a hard winter or similar.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...