This is the first winter that I have fed the birds in my garden and have been delighted to watch tits finches starlings and even woodpeckers voraciously enjoying the fatball-hanger on the lawn.I too have started to remove the plastic nets as they seemed unnecessary. For poor robin who could only watch these antics I place one of the balls on the feeder tray and while the others are all competing to cling on to the hanging feeders he enjoys a good tuck-in!
We put fatballs out in various feeders in our garden. We used to leave the green netting on, mainly because we dont get many small birds in our garden. Jackdaws soon decimate the fat balls, even with the netting on. So now we take the netting off, and put the fatballs in wire mesh feeders.
I am so glad you told us of this hazard. I had no idea. I'm about to rush out and get my fat balls back in. My mum bought me a fat ball holder and I thought it was just an unnecessary gimmick! how wrong could I be. Thanks for the tips everyone.
I stopped using the net fat balls as they are too crumbly, will dry out and fall apart quite quickly. I now present the CJ Wild Bird Foods fat cylinders supplied by the CJ themselves, the RSPB and Sainsbury's. They are available in 500ml and 1l sizes and will last for ages. They should be hung which discourages the large birds from eating them as they cannot cling on or balance. They are a favourite target for squirrels however.
My wife gets rather concerned when I leave fat balls etc out for the birds as she thinks they may encourage rats and other vermin I'd be grateful for your advice as I am new to all this bird feeding but I must say I rather enjoy it.
have just got into this bird feeding game i have been buying rspb fat cakes but i shall certainly try the homemade version. i wasn't aware of the danger of the mesh bags will be passing this information on to all the people i have been boring with how wonderful it is to watch the birds in my garden
Hello Pippa. While I was reading your story about the fat balls it reminded me about something which happened in my friends garden many years ago when the ring on a birds leg caught in the mesh on a peanut bag. As my friend was away from home at the time the bird was dead by the time she got home.Which leads me to the question. Is it safe to ring birds? sincerely Doreen K.
I buy the suet filled half coconut shells 69p from home bargains also pack of three squares of suet mix with different ingredients £1.69p.I break one square up on the bird table for the bigger birds and have those green square feeders for the others.
May I just say on the subject of fat balls that we buy a product called cake mix from CJ Wild bird foods,This product mixed into melted suet & poured into pots,put in the fridge to set then put in a feeder is rated top grub by our visiting great,blue,coal & long-tailed tits plus assorted finches
I have a wire fat ball feeder which takes 4 small fat balls with a chain across the top used for hanging it up. The other day I was horrified to find that a starling had forced its way into the tube to gain access to the bottom fat ball and having done so could not escape. I was able to remove it and happily it flew away unharmed. Since then I made a circular wooden lid which is securely held in place by screws so that there is no danger of this happening again. This type of feeder is widely available (with chain for hanging it up) so be warned. It only takes a few minutes to remove the lid and refill the feeder before replacing it once more.
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