Bird Seed

[anne101 0]

I was wondering what all the breeders do with thier left over seed from the seed containers in the avairy?

 

I change water and blow off the husks daily and change every other day and I am finding that I am putting too much good seed in the bin....I don't like to waste?

 

Any thoughts?

[mattdog2 0]

I myself, Blow the husk off the top of the tray Then i give it a half refill to top it back up...

 

it only costs me $1.10 per KG ... so it's not that much of a problem when wasting it.... but if you want it to last, just blow the husk off and give it a top up

[**Liv** 0]

I use 13gk+ of seed a week. I don't blow husks or empty seed dishes, as I just top up the dish each day with fresh seed in the breeding cabinets. The flights have self feeders that i fill when empty.

 

When i do a large cleanout, and provided the birds in the cabinets are all healthy, i will take the second hand seed from the cabinet floor and the dishes and give it to the birds in the flight to pick through.

[mattdog2 0]

:yes: that's a good idea Liv, I should do that for my tiel's.

[**Liv** 0]

If you want to matt.

 

I forgot to add that the stuff i sweep off the bird room floor, or seed that comes from a cabinet that may not be 100% healthy, either goes in the bin or goes on the garden in my "vegi patch" where what isn't eaten by the wild birds, then grows into green food for the birds to eat :yes:

[anne101 0]

If you want to matt.

 

I forgot to add that the stuff i sweep off the bird room floor, or seed that comes from a cabinet that may not be 100% healthy, either goes in the bin or goes on the garden in my "vegi patch" where what isn't eaten by the wild birds, then grows into green food for the birds to eat :yes:

 

So then once it sprouts Liv, you then pick it and give it to the birds?

[**Liv** 0]

Yep :yes: .. I normally let it grow up until seeding age, but i will pick it at any stage and give it to the birds. They love it!

[anne101 0]

Yep .. I normally let it grow up until seeding age, but i will pick it at any stage and give it to the birds. They love it!

 

Cool...thanks Liv, guess I will be getting a little garden organized ! :yes:

[**KAZ** 0]

I do what Liv does :yes:

[mysixbabies 0]

if you have chooks they love it or else you can feed it to the wild birds.

[tonilee 0]

I have got both aviary birds and breeding cage birds, for the breeding cage birds when they get low I just tip whats in their containers into a bucket then refill with all fresh seed (daily if need be), I wait until we get a windy day, take my bucket of old seed and an empty bucket out into the wind and just slowly pour the old seed into the empty bucket, by the time you have finished all of the husks have blown away and all you will have left in your bucket is full seed and no husks , then I reuse it by topping up the self feeders in the aviaries, they do waste a lot of seed in some of the self feeders but this does not bother me as I have got quails in the bottoms of all my aviaries and they love it. I know my method might seem to some people as being "tight" but my theory is that once the husks are gone that whats left is perfectly good seed. Liv's method is a great idea, but I have got so much greenery around our farm that my birds get abundances of it and absolutely love it :rofl:

 

I have only been cleaning out my cabinets once a week as I have been told that cleaning the birds cage to often during breeding may disturb them, so the seed of the floor of my breeding cages gets pretty dirty, especially when the hen is sitting on eggs (they make a lovely mess).So I just pull out the slides from the floors and the seed and mess gets turfed out the shed door, the local parrots clean it up pretty quick

[**KAZ** 0]

I have got both aviary birds and breeding cage birds, for the breeding cage birds when they get low I just tip whats in their containers into a bucket then refill with all fresh seed (daily if need be), I wait until we get a windy day, take my bucket of old seed and an empty bucket out into the wind and just slowly pour the old seed into the empty bucket, by the time you have finished all of the husks have blown away and all you will have left in your bucket is full seed and no husks :rofl:, then I reuse it by topping up the self feeders in the aviaries, they do waste a lot of seed in some of the self feeders but this does not bother me as I have got quails in the bottoms of all my aviaries and they love it. I know my method might seem to some people as being "tight" but my theory is that once the husks are gone that whats left is perfectly good seed. Liv's method is a great idea, but I have got so much greenery around our farm that my birds get abundances of it and absolutely love it

 

I have only been cleaning out my cabinets once a week as I have been told that cleaning the birds cage to often during breeding may disturb them, so the seed of the floor of my breeding cages gets pretty dirty, especially when the hen is sitting on eggs (they make a lovely mess).So I just pull out the slides from the floors and the seed and mess gets turfed out the shed door, the local parrots clean it up pretty quick

Very good method

[mysixbabies 0]

I have got both aviary birds and breeding cage birds, for the breeding cage birds when they get low I just tip whats in their containers into a bucket then refill with all fresh seed (daily if need be), I wait until we get a windy day, take my bucket of old seed and an empty bucket out into the wind and just slowly pour the old seed into the empty bucket, by the time you have finished all of the husks have blown away and all you will have left in your bucket is full seed and no husks , then I reuse it by topping up the self feeders in the aviaries, they do waste a lot of seed in some of the self feeders but this does not bother me as I have got quails in the bottoms of all my aviaries and they love it. I know my method might seem to some people as being "tight" but my theory is that once the husks are gone that whats left is perfectly good seed. Liv's method is a great idea, but I have got so much greenery around our farm that my birds get abundances of it and absolutely love it

 

I have only been cleaning out my cabinets once a week as I have been told that cleaning the birds cage to often during breeding may disturb them, so the seed of the floor of my breeding cages gets pretty dirty, especially when the hen is sitting on eggs (they make a lovely mess).So I just pull out the slides from the floors and the seed and mess gets turfed out the shed door, the local parrots clean it up pretty quick

 

you have patience!!!!!!

[tonilee 0]

I am a stay at home mum who lives out on a farm, so I pretty much have nothing to do, this is why I went into breeding budgies...A. because I love them and B. Because I needed something to do to fill my day in. It turns out now that I spent most of my time with my birds and not inside. I guess I have a lot more time on my hands than the average person, so I guess I can afford to be patient

[anne101 0]

GREAT IDEA Tonilee!!!!

 

Thanks so much.......I love the idea and will give it a go !!

[Bubbles 0]

There are machines that seperate seed from husks , winnower , The seed is past a wind flow full seed falls into a bucket and husks pass into the waste section . Mine is a box with baffels inside and the air flow is provided by a vacuum cleaner .

Patterns for a winnower can be found on the internet , some shops sell them readymade , Ive even seen them on ebay.

I change my seed every second day in the breeding cabinets , put that seed in a sealed bin until I have about 20 litres by volume and them seperate this , I get around 40% good seed return and 60% refuse. The recycled seed is mixed 50/50 with fresh seed and used in my outdoor aviaries .

You need to be carefull with recycled seed , if in doubt for any reason throw it out to be on the safe side. There is some risk of passing on disease with this system but for me the savings far outway the risks . I dont recycle any seed from any obviously sick or suspect birds .

 

Bubbles

 

PS search under seed cleaner on ebay there is a winnower there with 4 days to go on auction , has a picture & is similar to the 1 I use .

Edited September 23, 2009 by Bubbles

[RIPbudgies 0]

Currently as my set up is small I put all used seed in a container and when full I winnow it. That winnowed seed is then used in a mix I make up for my Barbary Doves.

 

In previous times when I had 400 plus budgies I fed seed in the flights in separte dishes so not waste and as they flew down to the dishes it would blow the husks off. When breeding all dishes were done daily and tipped into a container. At the end of the week it was winnowed and then remixed with other seeds for the pigeons and doves.

some was thrown into the garden to provide seeding heads and picked at the sugar stage of growth and fed to the breeding birds and fledglings.

[LILBABYBUDGIES 0]

hmm i do li ke some of these suggestions

[macka 0]

I have a seed cleaner,it is a box with ahole at the top,to fit the Vac hose & on the side a shut to pour

the seed in & the Vac suckion, draws off the husks & the seed drops down.this seed is feed to

the birds in the flight,the breeders get fresh seed each day.

[GenericBlue 0]

im very wasteful i just toss out the seed into the bin or out on the lawn infact i put fresh seed on lawn for the dimond doves i have seed growing instead of lawn pretty much lol but it all gets feed to the breeders dayly and the aviary birds also i change my seed dayly in breeding room and aviary so i go through loads of seed

but i also go through loads of bread and veg rice ect so... im going to buy hanging feeders again i had them once but changed back to floor but im going to do both soon

but i clean aviary weekly and all floor stuff goes in bin

[robyn 0]

Great lot of re-cycle methods here. I have an old vacuum that sucks & blows. I sweep up seed without too much rubbish then using the "Blow" end of cleaner waving nozzle over seed as I pour it into bucket. Do this a couple of times it removes all husk and you have heaps of seed left. I then place this into pot plant saucers on floor.This then feeds the quail and the budgies dive in as well for a pick. Old junk from cages etc I have vacuumed out when they get really messy, mine waste a lot of seed in breeding cages, I don't know if they pick out special seeds at that time. This stuff I bin along with paper and greens scraps etc. to prevent mice. The neighbours might think I'm potty but it beats getting dizzy trying to blow husk out yourself. l.o.l

[anne101 0]

Thats a really good idea Robyn.....I think I have an old Electrulux in the shed.... pretty sure it blows....

 

 

Thanks!