I would definately go for a variety over a larger feeder. My hopper style feeder is actually the least favorite of all my feeders. It is always the last to be emptied. The tube feeders are the finches favorite. Everybody else seems to prefer the open tray style feeders or feeding off of the ground. Suet feeders and peanut feeders will help you attract that woodpecker, they really like the sunflower too. Black oiled sunflower is the best feed for attracting the most and largest variety of birds by far. I do buy cracked corn and a mix too because they are cheaper and I have a large population of doves, and in the spring, summer, redwinged blackbirds and grackles. They will eat the cheaper seed and it helps cut the cost a bit. Otherwise they'd be perfectly happy to fill up on black oiled sunflower too! LOL

The plastic upright drawer unit can be purchased at KMart, Target or anywhere storage units are sold. The drawer sizes vary about 12w"x15d"x4 to 7"h, the total unit is about 4feet tall & has wheels & 6 drawers. You can drill small holes in the top drawer where the beetles live since the eggs are tiny and will fall through to the next drawer(otherwise the beetles will eat the eggs). A better way is to cut out the bottom of the drawer (leaving about a 1" margin) & tape down or staple plastic window screening over the opening. Place any beetles you have in this drawer. Make sure you have a small refrigerator (set at no lower than 40 degrees)to keep the mealworms from transforming into pupae, then beetles. The beetles will die after laying eggs. You can feed the dead beetles to wild birds, bluebirds, bluejays, cardinals, etc. The beetles don't fly so you can set them on ground in a feeding dish. There are several excellent websites on growing mealworms, especially in you tube

I am assuming you mean live mealworms that you keep in the fridge right? In order to attract the blues to the mealworms you first need to watch and see where they normally perch and set a glass dish of the worms underneath that spot. The blues will see the movement and drop down to see if it is food. Once they know there is food in that dish you can then move it to a feeder and they should find it. I would not put the feeder real close to the nestbox as lots of other birds like mealworms and this may attract them. I have my mealworm feeder up on the deck. I normally feed mealworms and waxworms, they also love crickets but you need to remove the back leg of the cricket so it cannot jump out of the dish. Some people have luck with suet and nuggets but I haven't. Earlier this Spring my male blue was eating peanut chips though. A tip regarding the dried mealworms, they like them better if you rehydrate them first. Just put them in a cup of hot water, once the water cools, drain it pat them a bit with patper towel and put in a dish for them. I switch to the rehydrated ones later in September once live food is more scarce. Good luck! donna

I have an excellent book which someone gave me called "The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher Birdfeeders and bird Gardens" by Robert Burton & Stephen W. Kress, published by the Audubon Society on Thunder Bay Press. (ISBN 1-57145-186-2) Not only does this book have excellent pictures of birds, it has dozens of plans on how to make bird feeders, nesting boxes, bird baths and how to plant a landscape garden to attract birds. There is one whole chapter devoted to bird feeds and what birds they will attract. In addition to the common seeds and suet mixes they have a long list of table scraps that are great for attracting birds. They suggest making a wire cage and put your meat scraps in it, especially the fats that your trim off cooked hams or beef in addition to ham bones, beef marrow bones and even teh leftover turkey bones. A few other things that i found interesting was cooked spaghetti, cooked rice, uncooked pastry dough, baked potatoes with the skin on and stale cheese. Out of curiosity I baked a potato in the microwave, then sliced it in half and put it on my shelf feeder. It was a big hit with all the birds. Another thing that the birds here seem to like is orange peels. I saw a Blue jay pick up and orange peel that was 1/4 of the orange and fly off with it. If anyone is looking for a great how to book on building bird feeders or bird houses or making their own bird feeds I would highly recommend this one, especially if you are making bird feed because I am a bit skeptical of the health concerns for the birds when i read the recommendations of some books, but I don't think the Audubon Society would steer us wrong.