LeoA
Senior HTF Member
Last winter I bought a bag of sunflower seed hearts (sunflower seeds that have been mechanically husked, removing the shell). The chickadees in particular love black oil sunflower seeds and I was thinking that this would help them out in the bitter cold, eliminating them having to work to open up a seed to get to the food inside.
But they just seemed to sit until I'd clean the feeder out when it started to go bad, with the birds and wildlife focusing on everything else I usually put out. So this summer I started mixing what I had left into wild birdseed, but have been noticing that everything seems to get ate except these.
Has anyone else had better luck? I'm debating trying again since the concept seems sound, unsure if I'd be wasting my time. I did potentially screw up by emptying the bag into a cranberry juice jug when I bought it, which even now still has a strong scent when I open it even though it's several years old and was washed out. Could that scent be confusing the birds into not realizing that these are food?
But they just seemed to sit until I'd clean the feeder out when it started to go bad, with the birds and wildlife focusing on everything else I usually put out. So this summer I started mixing what I had left into wild birdseed, but have been noticing that everything seems to get ate except these.
Has anyone else had better luck? I'm debating trying again since the concept seems sound, unsure if I'd be wasting my time. I did potentially screw up by emptying the bag into a cranberry juice jug when I bought it, which even now still has a strong scent when I open it even though it's several years old and was washed out. Could that scent be confusing the birds into not realizing that these are food?
