Live Feeds (1 Viewer)

I am interested to find out what birds people have attracted with live feeds.

I was thinking of investing in mealworms. We live next to a wood and I would love to attract some more unusual birds to the garden, particularly warblers like Blackcaps or Willow Warblers that wouldn't be so interested in seed or peanuts. Has anyone had any success like this?

I put out maggots from my local fishing tackle shop as they seem cheaper than mail order. They attract all the usual birds along with flocks of starlings. Not seen any unusual birds though. Sometimes the maggots are gone in minutes.

Hi, BigD!

I see this is your first post to BirdForum so would like to send you a warm welcome from all of us on staff here.

Look forward to seeing more posts!

Hello Raggy, and welcome to the forum. We have been breeding mealworms for many years now (though supply cannot meet the demand in the breeding season, and we buy them by mail order). Initially they were for the robins, but we found that bluetits love them too - we were able to hel[p one of our bluetits to raise her two remaining chicks (a GSW took the other three) when she became a single parent a few days before fledging. Sparrows take them too, given the chance - but the feeder is now only accessible to smaller birds, since we found that a blackbird could take away ten or more at a time (there are limits to our feeding budget). I think most birds would take mealworms!

Incidentally, I have read that maggots should not be used to feed the birds - there was some correspondence about this some while back. I'll try to find the thread later, and if I succeed I'll post a link to it in this thread).

Maggots

Found the thread:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=18864

This spring I purchased a couple of ounces of mealworms with the intention of breeding my own supply but without much success. After purchase I placed the worms in a large lidded plastic container with plenty of ventilation. I then put around half a bag of plain flour and a good helping of bran in with the worms. To supply moisture I cut an apple in half and placed that on top of the flour/bran mixture. The apple was replaced weekly and more flour/bran introduced when I thought necessary. Most of the worms turned into beetles and I think I managed to breed a few worms. However, I did not produce anywhere near enough worms to make regular feeds for the birds. The wormery was kept in my shed on the floor in shade. I must say I was dissapointed with my efforts and aim for another try later. I would be most grateful for any tips on how mealworm breeding should be done. What was I doing wrong ? Probably everything !! Look foreword to your replies. Thanks Dave

Dave - if you PM your email address to me I'll reply, attaching a document I have about breeding mealworms. I think plain flour with added bran is probably not the correct medium for mealworms - ours do very well in a different mixture of ingredients.

I had the mealworms up for a week now.
Seen Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit actually take the worms as well as Blackbird, Magpie and even a Jay sniffing around suspiciously close. Nothing very unusual and I'm a bit surprised that most of the birds still seem to prefer the standard wild bird seed given the choice.

Hi Raggy, glad to hear you have had some success with the m/worms.

Wait until breeding time, they'll be going mad for them, taking them back to the nest for their young.

Regards