Blue Jays and Feeding Birds

Hi! I am new to gardening, bird watching and this website and I love it all. We live in Houston and we just bought 3 chickens, they are now 7-8 weeks old. What can I do to increase the blue jays, hummingbirds, woodpeckers and cardinals in my yard. Any specific bird feed or seed or bird feeder you recomend? Thanks so much. I heard peanuts are great. Do I keep them shelled and what would I put them in?
Blessings,
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer, Welcome to Dave's and the Bird Watching forum!!!

The peanuts can be put in a simple hanging platform feeder. This will also attract the Woodpeckers.

The Cardinals along w/ the other birds also love Black Oil Sunflower Seed. Both seeds can go in the platform feeder.

Here are a few pages that has a menu to the right about feeding birds. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1142
http://www.birdnature.com/foodmain.html

Suet is another food that many birds like. It can be hung in trees from suet cages. You can buy it or make it yourself. Here is a page on suet. http://www.birdnature.com/suet.html If you decide to make it yourself you can use Lard instead of real suet.

Hummingbirds are attracted to many different nectar plants but you can also put up a hummingbird feeder that contains plain sugar water. Here is another link for you that includes the recipe for nectar.
http://hummingbirds.net/feeders.html

Some plants that attract them. http://hummingbirds.net/attract.html Mine really seem to like the Red Bee Balm and tubular Honeysuckle.

If you have anymore questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Again, Welcome!!

Pelle ^_^

Pelletory, I have a question.. I have taken down my feeders for the season.. is that correct to do so? So the birds don't rely on me solely for their food?
My neighbor has left hers up but I feel it's not right since the flowers, etc are now in bloom & they can eat insects, etc.
Thanks Pelle...

Hi Cindy, Some people only feed birds in the winter when natural foods are scarce. I feed all year round because I think they need extra food for nesting time and when the young ones start to feed on their own. Suet seems very important and popular to them in those times.

I do put up less seed feeders in the summer (still keeping 2 up).

It's just a personal choice. :-)

I forgot to mention that water is an important source for birds also. I have 3 bird baths going but only 1 is a heated bath for the winter.

BTW, the birds will never rely 100% on the food from your feeder. The yummy insect's, berry' s etc. are way too tempting for them and they need the nutrients from them.

This message was edited Apr 13, 2010 10:40 PM

Glad to see somebody else who likes the jays!! I have found them to be fond of grapes too. I feed peanut pieces but lots of folk use peanuts still in the shell. They will also eat the suet.

Pelletory thanks so much for the info.. I have 2 suet feeders still out, however when it gets hotter here I am going to have to throw them out as I am sure they will go bad otherwise. I wouldn't want to poson the birdies! hahaha

I think I will only put out my feeder in the winter season as where I place the feeder pole would be in the way of mowing the lawn ( we have people come cut ours) so I wouldn't want it to be in their way. hahahaha