I'm not much of a salad eater but those who consume raw leafy greens or unpeeled fruit can wash their food just as they wash their dishes. (Then they can worry about the ingredients in their dish soap. ;o) Stir fry rules! We'd pull cow manure right out of the corrals and plow it into our garden when I was a kid. Now, I only use it composted. E. coli is one of the main species of bacteria living in the lower intestines of animals. It is naturally occurring in individuals and individually abundant. Certain strains produce toxins. I've read that new E. coli strains develop all the time and that genetic material can even transfer between bacteria of different species, asexually (wow!). Antibiotic-resistant strains of all bacteria have developed with the widespread use of antibiotics, often through production of animals used as meat in our diets. Out of caution, I'd not plant a garden under a roosting site and fresh manure can certainly "burn" plants. However, all of our food supply is subject to contamination and no one is suggesting that we kill all birds which may fly over our farm fields. And, the home garden is the only place where we can actually have a fair amount of control over the growing of the food for our table. Steve

I have a courtyard garden so there is limited space to move things around, I moved the taller roses to a safer spot and provided more perching material between the feeder and fountain and that has helped. So far the only bud I've lost this year was the tallest one on my Dream Come True rose, it was about 6' high and it was the only damage done to the whole plant so I'm pretty sure that the culprit had wings. I've never seen a hawk visiting my garden, but there is a bluejay who likes to swoop in and frighten away all the smaller birds. I'm thinking that most of the breakage occurs when they are taking off to get away from the bluejay, or possibly it's the bluejay but I've never seen it perch on the roses and I have witnessed the smaller birds doing it frequently. My dog Lola is a boxer-lab mix and she hasn't shown much interest in plants, she only cares about digging for gophers and eating anything gross she can find. I haven't been able to use manure in my garden for years. On the other hand she keeps the squirrels and other critters away during the daylight hours, at night the neighborhood cats and owl take over. Thanks for your interest and help!

Hi Nancy, I bought new birdfeeders today. I was in the States for the day (I'm from Canada) and so I decided to checkout Lowes and got feeders with metal perches. Funny thing about animals - you really can't tell what's on their minds when they do what they do..so for me to make sense of this is probably futile. And you are probably right in that large birds may have caused the damage -- yet I cannot explain why the cuts occur at the point the perch enters the tube and why the rest of the perch do not have any bite marks. These are relatively new tubes. One a year old and other just recently purchased. The perches are pretty strong I can't snap them in half. If it had been squirrels, the tubes by now would have been damaged. They remain intact and for added protection I had greased the poles. Mice, raccoons or squirrels will have to do heck of a pole dance to make it up that pole. I won't throw away my older feeders. I would like to still use them if I can locate rods of similar width to replace the perches. or as you said, enlarge the holes by drilling and get branches.

This is fun! So glad you are all trying to find ways to have more wildlife in your gardens. A few thoughts. 1. Vaseline on the poles...works until the weather gets too hot, then it gets gloppy, goopy, full of buts, and finally slides right off. (At least, that was my experience. 2. Slinkies are easy to attach. First, open the top ring of the Slinky. It has a little fastener holding the last loop closed. Just push it with a screwdriver or other tool until the last loop opens up. Slide the Slinky over your pole and into the position you want. Slide a hose clamp over the pole, push the final loop of the Slinky through the hose clamp, and tighten the hose clamp against the pole. Let the Slinky hang free at the bottom. The more it wiggles, the less likely they can climb it. Mine haven't even had the nerve to TRY yet. (I'll post a close up tomorrow so you can see just how it works.) For a $2.00 investment, NO SQUIRRELS! Wooohooooo! 3. Anna, you probably don't want to lure owls (or any predatory bird) to your garden if you are trying to feed birds there. It will frighten them away. If you have a large piece of property and can locate the owl box a LONG way away from your feeding station, that would be fine. Otherwise, I'd rethink that one, if I were you. Wood duck boxes are great if you have a pond or lake nearby. Other birds that will nest in boxes include bluebirds, wrens, titmice, great crested flycatchers, woodpeckers and more. Each requires specific dimensions and hole sizes, and specific locations, heights, etc. All of that info can be found online. 4. Tannatonk, as I said in my posts, I always throw down plenty of cracked corn on the ground for the squirrels and doves. But I try to keep the squirrels out of my feeders, and usually my baffles have worked. Now the Slinky is working well, too, SO FAR. I also feed safflower in the feeders that aren't squirrel proofed, as they don't like it. And no, I have never fed a red-bellied woodpecker by hand. Titmice and some other small birds, yes, but not woodpeckers. Let us know if you succeed! Good luck! Today, I had about 8 indigo buntings at once. In addition to the four adult males I've been seeing, there were 4 first spring males (immatures), and 1 female. Hmmm...that's NINE, isn't it? The painted bunting seems to be gone, and I never saw the rose-breasted grosbeak again, but the indigos are so much fun. They fly fast back and forth between the feeders, and often feed on the ground, like a flock of bright blue sparrows. Marcia