I feel your pain! Our feedmill does a preorder each year, we paid
$24.99/50#. Keep an eye at Tractor Supply if you have one, they often have a sale.

No Tractor Supply here, unfortunately, but my understanding is that it's similar to Agway, which is where I buy mine. I didn't buy the 50# this time because it was pouring rain, and dark, not the best conditions to decant the seed into three bags that I could carry into the house. So I'll be going back to town for more. I'll see if I can get a better price somewhere else, but I doubt it.

Sorry, Lynn, but it's good to know I'm not the only one. :-)

Our feed store is an Agway at one location and a family owned independent at the original. They are both usually more than the Tractor Supply, but if you can get on the Agway mailing list you might end up with deal. The sunflower crop was bad, at least that is what we've been told, so hope it is better next year!

Maybe we shouldn't have given all our old cordials to our DS when we moved? We had quite a collection from the days we used to go to St. Thomas, USVI. We mainly bought them for colorful display. We only drank the old cream sherries and Irish Mist.

Can you plant sunflowers for next year?

I do plant sunflowers, and leave them up for the birds. But I could never grow them in the quantity I'd need to feed the birds all winter. This past year was not my best sunflower growing experience. Critters came up to my porch and ate the first two plantings, and when the "successful" planting was just starting to produce flowers it got flattened by Hurricane Irene.

Your DS was probably glad to be the recipient of the cordials. I've been reading cocktail recipes, thinking about the holidays, and thinking I'd have to win the lottery before I could buy all those ingredients!

I wonder if Hurricane Irene was one of the factors in the bad sunflower crop. If not, it undoubtedly involved extreme weather of one kind or another.

Big price increases for birdseed here in TX as well. The other day, hub picked up a 35# bag of sunflower seeds from Lowe's for $25. We used to see acres and acres of sunflower fields, but this year, probably due to the drought and the extreme heat, didn't see a single one. I assume the sunflowers just shriveled up before they could produce, which is what happened to the volunteers that popped up under the bird feeders.

As for liqueurs, I bought some French brandy for a recipe a few weeks ago and got quite a good deal at $10. I really needed it for a couple of recipes, but it is nice and smooth and very drinkable. :o) I threw a few vanilla beans into half of it and it makes for a lovely tasting drink (and, possibly, home-made vanilla extract).

Here's the link to a website with interesting, very old, home-made cordial recipes, including descriptions of successes and failures. The entire website makes for an interesting read. There are quite a few recipes that can be made with brandy and herbs, berries, etc. Might be more cost-effective (and better ingredients) than pre-made.

Here is a link that might be useful: Early Cordial Recipes

When I fed the birds seed I had to switch to Safflower to deter the squirrels. That did work for awhile... until the squirrels decided it was "good enough" anyhow.

Now I only feed home made suet on a hook with a good baffle. It depends on what type birds you want to attract... I get all types of woodpeckers (including the Pileated), titmice, nuthatches, wrens, Cardinals, Bluejays, juncos and ground sparrows. The spring brings Grackles (who eat from the starling-resistant feeder) Grrr..

The suet costs me probably less than 75 cents a block and a block lasts 1 to 2 days. Not sure if that is cheaper than what you currently spend... I just couldn't afford to keep feeding squirrels which we have an abundance of.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some suet recipes

Interesting, Petra--thanks! I have a seckel pear tree, and was thinking I might try the Pear Spice recipe.....until I got to the part that says it was uninteresting and lacks pear flavor. But the Pomegranate Cordial sounds good, and looks relatively easy. Might be a nice gift idea, too.

Ohh, you have a pear tree?! How about growing pears in a bottle for next Christmas? :o)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bottled Pears...

Ha! Isn't that pretty! If I'd seen it back when my kids were growing up, I would have considered it as a family project (except for the alcohol part). Would have been a nice counterpoint to hatching Monarch butterflies. :-)

Yep. Sunflower seed is up in price this year. I buy mine at 'Farm and Fleet'. Their comeptitor, 'Fleet and Farm' is similar. Don't know if you have these stores in your area. Around here, they have the best prices on bird feed.

Look the selection over carefully. Take a calculator with you. I found that the price per pound varied widely between bag sizes and suppliers.

alisande said:

"At least with the black oil seed I know they'll eat it all."

The birds at my feeder do not eat the whole seed. They shell it first and then discard the outer covering. The little chick-a-dees have to work hard at this chore.

It seems prices for everything are through the roof. Last year I would buy my 50# SFS from Walmart for $20, now they don't even carry a 50# bag AT ALL but only a small 25# bag and the price for half the seeds is $18.77...so almost twice the price from one year ago. The cheapest I found was at a nursery the other day for 50# was $24. Much better....and Walmart's prices here lately are not the lowest in town anymore.

The birds at my feeder do not eat the whole seed. They shell it first and then discard the outer covering. The little chick-a-dees have to work hard at this chore.

Oh, no--I didn't mean my birds ate the shells! I meant there's no waste because they love black oil seeds. If I bought the cheaper mixed seed, I'd find millet and other seeds left behind.

Yeah, I checked Walmart, too. Same deal here: No 50# bags. I remember a place where my DH used to buy horse feed; I'll call and see if they're selling SFS, and how much it is.

No Farm and Fleet/Fleet and Farm here. It's funny how the names are so close!

I agree with you alisande, the birds really do waste a lot from the mixed seeds. I had been buying a good grade of mixed seeds but when I found a deal on SFS, I switched back to SFS and they really so go through it fast because they love it so much better than the mixed seeds!

Um...Mean Sue has to ask if it's good for bird populations to feed them. We aren't home all winter so have never started feeding when we couldn't continue it.

Chisue, in our neck of the woods (TX), we are encouraged to feed this winter, as well as provide water. Due to the drought lots of native plants, which normally provide berries and other winter feed for birds, have not produced. We've been putting food and water out all summer as well and have a large population of many different bird species, from woodpeckers to titmice to bluejays, wrens, chickadees, gold finches, and others.

I actually had a good experience at the liquor store the other week. Needed a bottle of Kamora--and found it was $9.99. Now I haven't bought any in years, but I could have sworn last time I bought it, it was between $15 and $20--so I was more than happy with the price.

I learned a long time ago not to buy those bird seed mixes!

I have stopped buying black oil sunflower seed because it attracts too many scavengers, especially grackles. I only buy safflower and niger now. I ordered 50# bags of each; don't remember exact prices; no doubt will be higher this year. The niger is primarily for the finches; grackles don't like safflower seed, and we don't have squirrels here. So the safflower is for the Cardinals, which I am trying to encourage, with minimum success because across the road from me are plentiful woods which they prefer.

This spring I had seen a couple Cardinals in and out of the (ornamental) pear tree and then one day I heard a peep, peep and there was a nestling on my back porch rail. I watched and sneaked out the back door from the garage and got close enough to snap a picture. Soon Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal came by and had a discussion with him(?) and
he got brave enough to attempt to stand up. I snapped a second picture and soon after all three were gone.

Pictures are not clear; I only use those CVS throw-away cameras. A photographer I'm not!

{{!gwi}}
Click to enlarge.
{{!gwi}}

I'm hoping they will come back this year.

Sue

Sue, are you sure that's a cardinal? Hard to tell from the pictures (a pox on CVS throw-away cameras LOL), but the beak (or should I say bill?) doesn't look cardinal-like.

I would love to feed niger seed like I used to. But I didn't dare even look at that price. I couldn't afford it last year, and I don't imagine the price has come down.

Doesn't hurt to ask, Mean Sue. :-) You're smart not to start feeding if you won't be around for part of the winter. It wouldn't be good to let the birds get dependent on you for food if you can't keep the supply going.

I never go anywhere, so I feed every winter. I used to feed all year round (fun, because you get to see migrating birds), but stopped when one of my dogs was killed by a bear. The Game Commission agent explained that the bear was attracted by my bird feeders, and advised me to feed only during bear hibernation.

Every November a chickadee (not the same one, I don't think) tells me it's time to resume feeding. Sometimes it's a rap on a window; this year one came onto the porch to "talk" to me.

Azzalea, I bought Kamora, too--after I saw the price of Kahlua. :-)

We feed our birds chicken scratch, it's cheaper and they seem to love it.

Is chicken scratch cracked corn? I scatter it for the doves; they're the only ones interested in it here. Most song birds need the oil in other kinds of seeds.

Susan, yes, it is a cardinal. That streak you see is, I think, a stray feather from what will be his crest. If you enlarge the pic, the way you can enlarge your text, you will see that the light spot toward the breast is the beak. He was looking at me because I was talking to him. (Yes, I talk to birds sometimes. Guess that makes me a bird brain.)

I do use the cheapo cameras. Can't afford a good camera and expensive bird seed. So the bird seed wins. {{gwi:1472708}}

Here is something interesting. I went to the garage to see if I might have marked the price on the bag of seed. I had put the date but not the price. There is a tag on the bag that gives an analysis of the ingredients: Crude protein....16.4 %, Crude fat...26.0%, Crude fiber.. .31.41%.

Sue

Love the birdseed from Costco. 20 lbs for around 8 dollars.