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You bet, and thanks for watching! 😊 🐛🦋🐝🐦🌺

Absolutely! And thanks for watching! 😊🦋🐛🌺🐦

Hi! I purchased the tray type nectar feeders I use now from Wild Birds Unlimited. They do have a website, and you can order from them online. But you can also get tray feeders from Amazon. The key is to get the ones that don't have "separate flowers" on them because those are difficult to clean. The ones I have are just two hard plastic pieces and super easy to clean. 😊🐛🐝🌺🦋

Oh boy - that is a lot of work, and NOT FUN! I don't blame you for not wanting to use bird seed again. Suet cakes are good for all your suet feeding types of birds! That is a great choice. What type of birds do you like to attract? (Just for the future if you ever want to try seed again, safflower seed attracts birds like cardinals, house finches, chickadees, and doves. You can get just plain safflower seed from stores like Walmart fairly cheaply, and it doesn't cause a sprouting issue. Squirrels don't like safflower either, which can be a bonus. But I don't blame you for giving up on the seed though. Your veg garden is way more important.)

@@ButterfliesNBirds I read that about safflower seeds. I may try that but we are a one income family so it may not be in the budget. My husband does the shopping so he may surprise me with some. Right now I'm using oats and popped popcorn. The popcorn is cheap so it's fine if the squirrels enjoy some. Really enjoy your videos!

@@ButterfliesNBirds we get a lot of house sparrows. Apparently they are quite invasive here in Missouri and chase away blue jays and cardinals but I figure they need food too. That being said we do get chickadees and nuthatches. Had grosbeaks last year. Those were neat. And daily there are cardinals and blue jays.

The biggest hit is the birdbath. It's a plastic barrel with a flat lid that is shallow and the birds love it! It comes off and is easy to clean. I couldn't have bought anything fancy that they would have loved more. Plus the dog makes sure they have a bare patch of earth to take a dust bath in 🙂🙂

Thank you - I'm glad you found the channel! 😀 I didn't know about the oats and popcorn, so I learned something new - thanks! Oats sounds like a good choice and they say popcorn is a treat in moderation. Good to know! 😊🦋🐛🌺🐦

Great question! I live south of Houston, TX in zone 9a and we are hot and humid the entire summer. It holds up perfectly all summer long - no melting, smearing, etc. We don't have flies per se, but we do have ants, and it will attract them here and there. I have never had bark butter covered with ants though. As far as squirrels, they love the regular bark butter but do not touch the bark butter with hot pepper. That is the only kind we buy because we have a lot of squirrels in the area.

Oh boy, you have asked a really good question! In my experience, it took a long time for the birds to find the WBU log suet feeder. I put it in various places to try to get them to use it. But the woodpeckers and wrens regularly use it now. I have another cage suet feeder that the birds aren't going to yet. The absolute most success I have is putting hot pepper Bark Butter directly onto my tree. So many birds eat it like that .. woodpeckers, wrens, mockingbirds, cardinals, robins, blue jays, warblers, etc. I don't feel like I have enough experience yet with suet feeders to recommend one because my birds don't go to them like they go to the Bark Butter directly on the tree. If I didn't do the BB, they might then show a preference for a suet feeder. Sorry I couldn't be more help on this!

Hi Megan - that is a great question! No, we don't have a rat problem because of the placement of the feeders and the baffles on each of the pole systems. Squirrels, rats, and opossums cannot climb the pole nor jump to get to the seed. We don't have raccoons, but if we did, we would have to purchase a different type of baffle to keep them off too. Rats will eat the bark butter on the tree (double yuck!), so I make sure to put out only enough for the day. It is usually gone by the afternoon so there isn't any for the rats when they come out. But, it does come with a cost to do this. I believe the pole system was around $100 just by itself. Then we purchased the baffles, feeders, domes, accessories, etc. Like I mentioned though, we started out with just one pole system and just loved it. It is a pain to determine where to put the pole system though. Where I wanted it originally didn't work because the squirrels could jump from a tree branch down to the pole system. So, the proper placement and the correct baffles are what really works keeping the squirrels, rats, and opossums away. Right now my biggest pests are the white winged dove flocks. They eat fast and furious and are pretty large birds. Finally, I do want to mention about bird seed laced with hot pepper. While the squirrels will generally stay away from it rats won't. I used to use this bird seed too, but don't anymore because I went ahead and bought the correct baffles for each of our pole systems. I hope this helps! 😊🦋🐛🌺🐦

How many hummingbirds do you currently have at the moment? I thought they flew up toward more northernly states for the spring and early Summer for nesting? They usually arrive in August-September for me down here in Pearland, but not for nesting, only migration travel.

I believe I only have 2 or 3 hummingbirds at the moment. We had two hummingbirds overwinter with us the past two winters and have even had hummingbird nests in our large firebush before it froze in the winter. Most do fly up north for breeding. We see them travel through in the spring and fall, with the vast majority coming through in the August-September timeframe like you describe.