Tips for Keeping Your Bird Seed from Sprouting Weeds
We love sitting out on the patio in the mornings. Just watching and listening to the birds as we drink our coffee and catch up on the news. So much so we built a nice little bird sanctuary for our birds to eat and hang out. First thing we noticed is that we needed to come up with a way to feed our backyard birds without the mess.

Picky eaters
Our backyard birds like to pick through the bird seed and the seem to throw half of it on the ground. We tried changing to no waste bird seed and that helped but they still like to make mess. By the end of the summer the area underneath our bird sanctuary looked like a mess. Here are a few tips we learned along the way.

The first thing you can do is change to bird seed that doesn't have a lot of filler. Most of the filler is stuff the birds don't like as much. So they will pick through it to get the good stuff. Hard to blame them. But look at all the wasted food. Of course not all of it will go to waste as some birds like to from the ground and will get some of it.
You can also use sunflower seeds that are shelled. The birds are like us in that they don't eat the shell. It has to go somewhere and that somewhere is under your feeders!
Suet Balls
Our little backyard birds love the suet balls. We have some Bluebirds and Blue Jays that visit and they always seem to invite their friends when we put those out! Great thing about suet balls is there is no mess! We also have several suet feeders that most of our backyard birds seems to love.
One more thing…

If your little backyard buddies are still making a mess with their food you can bake the bird seed before you put it out. Just put the bird seed on a cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes at 250 degrees. Or you can microwave the bird seed in a microwave safe container for 2 minutes on high.
Now if you tried changing bird seed, tried the suet balls and they are still making a mess. You can always try putting mulch under the bird feeding area. Then all you do is have to turn over the mulch with a rake or shovel every month or so. The mulch will allow the bird seed to decompose naturally.

Hopefully these tips will help you enjoy your backyard birds without worrying about the mess they are making!
Check out our other bird related articles

