I find that any feed with a high amount of millet tends to be ignored in our feeders. Millet is the tiny, white, round grain. We draw the best with black oil seeds and striped sunflower seeds. We do use other mixes just so that the diet is more well rounded in case that's what they need.

Good luck with them.

We made small DIY ones @ our after school program & the leftover ones I hung outside our building disappeared right away, but the 1 I hung in a tree in my yard sat for a long time untouched - most likely because we have squirrels & our park, but none on the island where I live.

(Tho we do have rats in both locations.)

I have a hunch these might be more useful in areas w/ snow & ice in the winter - when there's no other food around to compete...?

Hi

have experimented with various types and ended up with a two foot square hanging one with a screen bottom . I find this is far less messy as even the dove find it difficult to throw the seed out . Do get a wide variety of birds but it also feeds the squirrels . When the Painted buntings arrive in Oct. I put up small standard cage feeders attached to the aviary. Fun watching the giant Blue jays try to get feed out of the two inch square feeder But the do by hanging upside down. lol other birds and squirrels ignore it

gary

Black sunflower seeds are the thing the cardinals around here love...

Bird feeders in FL. are not the best idea, seeds bring rodents and rodents bring big, big snakes a woman took a photo was in our paper of a huge rattler curled up beneath her bird feeder, I have 2 nice bird baths they enjoy here, beside it's FL. they have plenty to eat, why do you think the birds come South for winter?? P.S. she shot the snake.

Lots of things attract rodents. Fruit, seeds, nuts, garbage. To avoid using a bird feeder because it might, on a very slim chance, bring a snake into the yard just doesn't make sense. It's like my MIL telling me I shouldn't plant Muhly Grass because snakes love to hide in it. I have lots of Muhly grass and Fakahatchee grass, but when I see snakes, they are never 'hiding in the Muhly Grass'. This is indeed Florida and snakes are just as much a common sighting as gators, lizards and cockroaches. If the rattler was curled under her bird feeder, it likely wasn't trying to hunt because it would be more or less out in the open and easy to spot.

There are reasons to kill a snake (kids, pets, high population area), but just because it is in one's yard isn't one of them. People need to stop getting so panicky about snakes and learn more about them. Even a rattler will, given the chance, leave a person alone than it will attack. I don't think there is a single snake species in the US, much less Florida, that aggressively attacks people. Rattlers do indeed hunt rodents, but rather than killing a rattler, it makes more sense to find a way to get rid of the rodents that brought it in the first place. Killing the rattler just makes it safer for the rodents to keep breeding and becoming a bigger problem (and attracting more snakes). If there's no food for the rattler, it will move on.

Well it happens frequently here in FL. beside the birds have enough to eat here without your seed. this snake was 6 to 8' long, you would shoot it to if you had pets or small kids.