Post by Beechnut on May 18, 2019 10:40:07 GMT
Sue, It seems that there is no hard and fast rule about meal/wax worm feeders, but generally speaking I don't think the tits like them too close to the box. This is not always the case, so it's trial and error.
Previous years, I've had my feeder box on the fence across the lawn from the wallbox and it's nearly always been used throughout rearing apart from the first three or four days, when small natural occuring food was used. Some years I also had a temporary plastic box feeder in the conifer hedge only about 2-3m from the box.
This year I put these in position and also a Scott feeder on the post at the end of the fence, all with starling/larger bird defences, and nothing was touched by either of my GTs, but when I put out another Scott feeder in the plum tree - not hidden, but not on the outside edge of the foliage - Tuppence started using it within a few hours, unfortunately the starlings were also interested and managed to capture some mealies until I made the adaptation to the feeder (Documented elsewhere on the forum).
Now that feeder is being used by Tommy and Tuppence (who still does a stint of feeding now and then, despite sitting on her 5 eggs) most of the time, keeping the fledglings topped up.
Previous years, I've had my feeder box on the fence across the lawn from the wallbox and it's nearly always been used throughout rearing apart from the first three or four days, when small natural occuring food was used. Some years I also had a temporary plastic box feeder in the conifer hedge only about 2-3m from the box.
This year I put these in position and also a Scott feeder on the post at the end of the fence, all with starling/larger bird defences, and nothing was touched by either of my GTs, but when I put out another Scott feeder in the plum tree - not hidden, but not on the outside edge of the foliage - Tuppence started using it within a few hours, unfortunately the starlings were also interested and managed to capture some mealies until I made the adaptation to the feeder (Documented elsewhere on the forum).
Now that feeder is being used by Tommy and Tuppence (who still does a stint of feeding now and then, despite sitting on her 5 eggs) most of the time, keeping the fledglings topped up.