Sunflower seed mess?
David
I was wondering what any of you folks do about the leftover mess from
sunflower seeds? I have a tube feeder and a platform feeder that I have
both been filling with black oil sunflower seeds. Unfortunately, there
is now a mound of shells under both of them. All the grass is dead
around both poles, and it’s really a mushy mess, especially after we had
tons of rain this weekend. How can I get rid of this mess? This is a
rental house, so I am limited somewhat in what I can do, I and really
can’t leave it like that when I move. I tried to shovel the shells up,
but that didn’t work too well. Do I need to just dig it all up
completely, then put some new dirt down, and then spread some grass
seed?
I have recently switched to using sunflower chips in the hopes of
cutting down on this. It seems to work well, but they cost twice as much
as the regular sunflower (although they last a little bit longer). What
do some of you other folks do?
David
Joe
Ruth
shells. It makes it a lot easier.
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GrampysGurl
I put about six big patio blocks around the pole so now I can just sweep up the
shells. It makes it a lot easier.
I like this.
GrampysGurl
I have recently switched to using sunflower chips in the hopes of
cutting down on this. It seems to work well, but they cost twice as much
as the regular sunflower (although they last a little bit longer). What
do some of you other folks do?
David
Shovel it up weekly and put it in the garbage can. I try to take the least
amount of dirt with the shells as possible.
CynthiaAAndrews
<//><
Cynth / So California
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Sandy
into bits. I buy mine at Wild Birds Unlimited.
http://www.wildbirdsunlimited.com
They work great in tube feeders and they provide a much cleaner feeding
station and although they cost a bit more, I find it worth it. I don't
put out sunflower seeds simply because of the mess they leave behind. I
use niger seed (thistle) in one tube feeder, sunflower chips in another
and safflower (another clean seed) in the front yard. I also have a
cracked corn feeder on the gate in my backyard.
I've thought about building a table in the vacant lot behind my house
and filling it with black oil sunflower where I don't care about the
mess... maybe next spring.
Sandy Lang
Ottawa Canada
MEAWE229
I also use a Shop Vac and it works wonders. Takes only seconds. My neighbors I
am sure are questioning my sanity, out what I am sure looks like "vacumning my
lawn". Oh well, it does the trick.
David
to use a vacuum. Is a Shop Vac able to handle the wet and dirty shells?
David
David
What is a patio block? Is this something you buy at Lowes or Home Depot?
David
MEAWE229
>messy
>to use a vacuum. Is a Shop Vac able to handle the wet and dirty shells?
>
Well the one my husbands sure does. It is quite large and vacumns water and
anything in its path, so works really great. A little bulky to pick up and
carry, but heh that is how my hubby comes in. LOL Course you need a plug in and
we have several of these in various locations with long extension cords. Sounds
like work, but really it does not take long, and I do this once a week in the
summer, in the winter I just use a shovel and scoop hulls snow and all and toss
in garbage.
Tyra Trevellyn
>
>LOL! I had thought about some sort of vacuum, but I thought it might be
>too messy
>to use a vacuum. Is a Shop Vac able to handle the wet and dirty shells?
>
>David
In the spring, when the area still had some grass to speak of, I used a Car
Vac. It worked fine, but of course the bags aren't waterproof or very large.
Now I simply sweep up the bare hard earth :-) Oh I do have a few nice
sunflowerrs growing there....but mostly bare hard earth. Simple to sweep, and
the water runs off (when it rains which it hardly ever does these days). In
another area where sweeping is impossible, I dump a bucket of earth on top of
the hulls every now and then and tamp it down. This covers the poop and the
seed hulls, and seems to become extremely fertile....judging from the new
growth of seed crops there.
Best,
Tyra
nNJ
Michael A. Cochran
into a pile with the hose and then throw them into my compost pile. Using
the hose also helps to wash away/dissipate the poop.
MAC
Ruth
bought bigger ones so I wouldn't have as many to put down.Heres a picture,as
you can see I haven't sweep in a while. The sunflowers grew from the cracks in
between the blocks so I left them.
http://www.members.aol.com/RHar4007/yard.jpg
Carol
the way you've painted the house a complementary colour to go with them :-)
Carol,
Otago,
New Zealand
Ruth <rhar...@aol.comxxxx> wrote in message
news:20010731180439...@ng-bj1.aol.com...
ihat...@fakedomain.com
>sunflower seeds? I have a tube feeder and a platform feeder that I have
I read in some other replies about using a Shop Vac. This is a good way
to clean up.
I wanted to also mention that I have placed a 'table' under my
feeders. It is also called a Ground Tray. The 'top' of the table is
actually hardware cloth covered with screen. A picture of one can be
seen at http://www.birdmagnet.com/products/ground.htm. After I bought
one that was about two feet square, I made a super sized one to put
under a couple of large feeders I have. The one I built is six feet
long and three feet wide. This was actually my first project in
carpentry, and it turned out to be very heavy duty. I recommend
building one instead of buying it. It was a very fun and easy project.
I just sweep the top of it every so often and push the refuse into a
dustpan. I only have to use the Shop Vac a few times a year. The area
covered by my super ground tray is next to my living room picture
window. Right under the picture window is dirt, not grass. This is
because long ago there used to be Juniper bushes there, but these were
removed and sod was never layed in. I found that using the Shop Vac
removed much of this top soil, which created a depression for rain
water to collect, which is bad to have next to your house, so this was
a perfect solution for me.
Another benefit is that it is a good way to offer food to birds that
prefer or tolerate to eat on the ground. For example, Cardinals like
to go to the table and eat seeds that have fallen onto it uneaten out
of the feeders. I usually toss a handful of something special for
Mourning Doves, etc onto it too. If you have snow in the winter, it is
a great way to offer food to ground feeding birds in a clean manner.
Also, it is not good to let these shells collect. They can breed many
dangerous organisms, one of which is salmonella. It has been mentioned
here before that dogs have actually died from eating these diseased
shells.