Feeder Best Practices
In my last blog post (Useful Weather Apps), I covered some of the weather apps that I find as useful tools and as one of my three factors that I use to analyze how much food to add to my feeders. The three factors that I consider are: Supply, Demand & Weather.
Supply and Demand Curve
If you have ever taken any economics classes, you may be familiar with the concept of supply & demand. If not, you can compare this concept to the supply of food that you currently have in your refrigerator. It may be adequate to meet the demand under normal conditions, but when you have a large number of guests over, all of a sudden demand can quickly outstrip supply.
Another factor is the quality of the food in your refrigerator. There may be some items that may be or have old dates on them, further reducing the supply of food that you have to offer your guests.
The same concept applies to feeding birds. You may have your feeders stocked for the typical amount of food consumed daily. Then, all of a sudden a flock of migrating birds flies in and empties your feeders. In this case, demand has outstripped supply.
In response, you may decide to overfill your food trays thinking that flock of birds that just flew in will remain and consume the seed. However, they have moved on and you are left with an over-abundance of food, which in wet or moist environments can quickly spoil.
Similarly, in order to reduce the trips to fill their feeders, many well-meaning folks just pile on the food, figuring that over time it will be consumed. This may well be the case and may be an acceptable practice in extended periods of dry conditions. However, if any rain is in the forecast or just merely having the feeders in areas of high humidity, mold and mildew can appear and accelerate the decay of the food and it needs to be removed. So, in effect, by overfilling feeders, one runs the risk of having to throw out more food which can get expensive. Not to mention the toll it takes on your feeders and all the extra cleaning of your feeders is required.
So, what is the answer? My process is to balance out supply and demand with weather in mind. How is this done?
My Process
1) Weather First - The first thing I do each morning before heading out to refill my feeders is to check my weather apps to know if rain is forecasted for the current day, night or the next day. If it is, I immediately know to refill in amounts less than normal for a given demand of birds, If heavy rain or storms with high winds are forecast, then the demand might even be less than normal requiring even less food in the food trays and I won’t top off any feeders, especially to those feeders that are more susceptible to weather .
2) Supply and Demand (with Weather in Mind) - Given that I have observed the demand (amount of birds and their respective daily consumption) over the last few days, I can fill feeders less if I know that rain is forecast or there is high humidity. If no rain is forecast, and not a period of high humidity, i just fill with only demand in mind.
3) Minimize Overfilling! - Keep in mind that overfilling feeders is never really a good idea, unless you may be leaving for the weekend and don’t have someone to fill them in your absence.
4) Food Quality and Distribution - While at the feeders for the refill, I always make sure and examine the quality of the food that already exists in the feeders. Wearing rubber coated gloves, I usually take a small masonry pointing trowel with me to move the food around in the trays to ensure that there is more air circulation and that moisture is not gathering around the inside sides or corners of the tray.
5) Review Feeder Surfaces - I also review the feeders to ensure that no bird deposits are present on any of the feeding surfaces, in the the food or ant moats, as this step is for disease prevention. Deposits can contain pathogens that when consumed or come in contact with the birds can quickly spread the disease.
6) Review Feeder Distribution - I review the distribution effectiveness of each feeder. Sometimes a larger seed or nut can reduce the flow of seed. Or, if in a tube feeder, even moisture can cause the food to clump together, causing food not to flow. Sometimes just tapping on the tube, reduces the gap and allows the seed to distribute. This clumping should be a sign that the food has retained too much moisture and may need need to be disposed of and the feeder refilled. Seed that is not well distributed at a feeder makes that feeder less effective and the decay of the food source can be accelerated.
7) Suet Considerations - If feeding suet, examine for mold, as it already contains some moisture. If feeding suet nuggets, they more readily absorb moisture and can break down turning to mush, spreading the moisture to surrounding seed. If I know that it is going to rain, I reduce the amount of suet nuggets in my tray mix or use a squirrel baffle over the feeding tray to reduce the amount of rain hitting the food.
8) Special Note about Nectar - When feeding hummingbirds with nectar, weather remains a consideration, even though the nectar remains in the feeder. The weather factor in this case is not moisture or rain, but rather, the heat. The hotter the conditions, the quicker your nectar can spoil. As such, hotter days requires changing of the nectar more often. I usually make 8 cups of nectar (Boil 8 cups of water. Turn off heat. Stir in 2 cups of table sugar. Let cool and pour in container to put in fridge) at a time and store the excess in the refrigerator. Every time that I change out the nectar, the hummingbird feeder gets a full cleaning, inside and out and each flower port is cleaned. See the brushes that I use to accomplish this task on my Bird Care /Feeding Product Page. Hummingbirds being so tiny have a low tolerance to extremes, including even the smallest amount of mold.
9) Seed Tray Drainage - If I know that rain is coming and I have feeders with seed trays, then I ensure these trays are free of seeds, as the seeds can block the drain ports and cause the water to back up into the food in the feeder, causing a wicking effect, with moisture traveling up further into the food in the feeder..
In Conclusion
In conclusion, by applying the Supply/Demand/Weather maxim and not overfilling your feeders, keeping an eye on the quality & effective distribution of the feed at your feeder can not only serve the birds well, but also extend the life of your feeders. Additionally, focus on keeping bird deposits off feeding surfaces as well as an eye out for moisture accumulation. Bleach cleaning takes a toll on all wooden feeders and possibly other feeders as well. You will find that what you trade in time, walking to the feeders more often (you get extra steps for your step count), will cost you less in food costs in the long run and keep the birds and critters healthier. This is certainly a win-win for all parties involved.
Please feel free to share ideas or best practices that you have found effective in managing a feeder. Thanks for your input!
