Interesting facts about Peanuts

While many of us faithfully buy peanuts for backyard bird feeding, have you ever stopped to wonder about where peanuts come from?  

Peanuts are one of those crops that we don't get a chance to see much in Canada. That is because most peanut varieties require 3000 heat units to grow and mature and there are very few regions in Canada that get those kind of heat units. There are some peanuts grown in southern Ontario but for the most part, peanuts in North America are grown in the southern states - Georgia and Texas primarily as well as Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. Peanuts are also grown in other parts of the world including Latin America and China but for quality control reasons, we buy our peanuts exclusively from the United States.

Given that most of us are not very familiar with peanut crops I thought it might be interesting to just share a bit of information on how peanuts are produced:

Peanuts are considered part of the legume family - like a pea or bean. However, unlike those plants where the pods are above ground, peanuts are more like potatoes where the peanuts are underground.

In fact, in order to harvest peanuts there are special machines that will unearth the peanuts and then turn the peanuts upside down (pods up) to dry. Then a harvester comes through and separates the peanuts from the rest of the plant. There are a few neat youtube videos that show you some information on crop production of peanuts: Peanut Harvest Video on Youtube.

Peanuts for bird feeding: Many birds love peanuts including chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, jays, towhees, juncos, titmice, and doves. This is likely related to the fact that peanuts have excellent nutritional value with high protein and fat content. We recommend serving them whole or hulled in a tray feeder or in a special peanut feeder. If you want to attract small birds, you are better off with a split skinless peanut since it is much easier for a small bird to handle than an in-shell peanut. We take pride in offering excellent quality peanuts to our customers and believe the birds know the difference!

How to keep bird seed fresh.

We often get asked if it is possible to keep birdseed fresh for a longer period of time. While we typically suggest a bird seed shelf life of about 6 months, there are a few things that you can do in order to keep your birdseed fresh longer.

• Buy fresh seed in good condition:  The first thing to ensure is that the seed you are buying is fresh from the start. Make sure that you have a good look at the bag you are considering buying.  If the seed appears dusty or discolored, or has any sort of cobwebs, do not buy it. Avoid any bag that appears worn out or dusty, as it is possible that it has been sitting on the shelf too long already.  Also check to see if there is a manufacturing date or code on the bag so you know for sure when the birdseed was made.  
• Store your seed in an airtight container:  After you have purchased your birdseed, it is important to consider the type of container that your seed will be stored in.  If your seed is in a bag it is best to change it to another type of container as most bags have small holes in it to allow bags to stack better when shipping.  However these small holes could allow insects or moisture to get inside the bag.  A great alternative is to transfer your seed into an airtight plastic or metal container.   
• Store your seed in a cool dry spot:  Once you have your seed in an airtight container, you will need to determine where you are going to place the seed.  Temperature plays a major role in how long your birdseed will stay fresh.  If the seed is stored at a temperature that is too warm, it will spoil a lot faster. Most homes are too warm to store seed. Therefore, a cool garage or garden shed are great options.  During the summer months, it is a good idea to move your seed to a freezer if possible.  Keeping the seed frozen will not affect the seed quality and will help to prevent the seed from spoiling. 

It is always a good idea to do occasional quality checks on your seed.  Ensure that there are no signs of insects, or insect cobwebs.  The seed should not be discolored in any way, and you should check to make sure the smell is not ‘off’ and remains fresh.

If you follow these tips, you should be able to ensure your seed stays fresh for your feathered friends.

Summer Bird Feeding Tips

It’s that time of year again!

The weather is beautiful, and it’s the perfect time to sit outside and enjoy watching all the birds visiting your backyard.  Don’t forget to keep your feeders filled during the summer months.

You may assume that birds have a lot of food to eat in the wild at this time of year, and while this may be true, they can still benefit from our help.  Many birds are breeding and nesting during the summer, and by keeping our feeders filled, it allows these birds to stay close to their young ones.

Here are a few summertime tips to keep the backyard birds happy and healthy throughout the season:

1. Add water to your backyard:  Birds really love water, and even though water is more accessible during the summer months, bird baths are great to have in your backyard.  Having a bird bath will attract more birds into your yard.  Just be sure to keep bird bath clean, empty the old water and refresh it on a daily basis.  This will help to make sure that your bird bath will not become breeding grounds for pesky mosquitoes. 
2. Set up a sugar water feeder:  If you would like to attract a wider range of birds, such as hummingbirds, orioles, sapsuckers, purple finches, tanagers, and warblers, you can set up a sugar water solution feeder. Just make sure that the water gets changed every couple of days when it is hot outside to prevent it from getting mouldy. 
3. Protect bird health by keeping feeders clean:  It is also very important to ensure that you are keeping your feeder clean at all times during the year, but especially during the summer months. Summer temperatures bring with it an ideal time for bacterial growth in your feeder. You can keep your feeders clean by following these simple steps:  

• Scrub your feeder with hot soapy water about once per month & allow them to air-dry afterwards.
• Wipe down perches and feeding portals on the feeder with a cloth dipped in a weak bleach solution,.  This will prevent the spread of salmonella. 
• Fill your feeders with small amounts of seed more frequently rather than large amounts all at once.  This will keep the food from spoiling which could pose a health risk to the birds. 
• In an open tray feeder, remove any food soaked by rain, as well as any bird droppings.  This will also help prevent the spread of diseases. 

If you follow these simple tips, your backyards birds will be happy and healthy, and you will surely enjoy seeing various birds visiting your backyard throughout the summer season.

How to attract finches to your yard this spring.

Spring and summer are great times of the year for feeding finches. Goldfinches become a beautiful yellow in these months and house finches, purple finches and pine siskins are plentiful. So how do you attract these little birds to your feeders?


Start with the right feeder: Purchase a tube thistle finch feeder. This will be a long cylindrical feeder with small perches and very small seed holes.

Put the feeder in the right location: Mount the feeder in a tree or bush where you have seen finches before. You can move the feeder closer to the house once your birds are used to the feeder and regularly visiting it.

Choose the right food: Goldfinches are known for their love of njyer seed (pictured left).

However,there are other options. The variety of ingredients in Mother Nature's Finch Mix is designed to attract redpolls, pine siskins, goldfinches, housefinches and other finches. Our Mother Nature's finch mix contains ingredients that these small birds love including nyjer seed, finely chopped sunflower seed, canola seed, canarygrass seed, and gold proso millet.

Another option to consider, particularly if you are looking for a "no mess" solution, is our Mother Nature's Fine Chips which are finely chopped sunflower kernels. They feed well through the small holes in finch feeders and are very popular with finches. While the fine chips are a bit more expensive than our Mother Nature's finch mix, there will be no shells under the feeder and no sprouting to worry about.

Finally, when you have your feeder up, you could consider adding a birdbath to your yard. All birds including finches enjoy water.

The Ultimate Bird Food: Black Oil Sunflower Seed

There are so many different kinds of seeds in bird seed mixes and it can be kind of confusing to know what mix to buy and use in your feeders.  Well today I wanted to shine some light on the ultimate bird food, black oil sunflower, and explain why you should buy mixes that contain a high percentage of this nutritious seed.

Black oil sunflower is a much loved food source for wild birds.  In fact, studies have shown that black oil sunflower is the top choice of most seed eating birds from chickadees to sparrows.  So why is black oil sunflower so popular?  

Sunflower plants in bloom.  The center of the flower contains
the seed which will turn black when the plant is mature.

Well black oil sunflower has a very high oil content, as high as 40%. This oil content acts as a very important energy source for wild birds who have to stay warm in the winter, migrate in the spring and fall and raise young during the summer. There are other bird foods with high oil contents as well, like peanuts and safflower, but the birds appear to be more attracted to sunflower than these other food sources.  

Sunflowers can be offered on their own or with other seeds in a mix but you will find that mixes with higher sunflower content will be more popular and attract a broader variety of birds than mixes with low sunflower content.

Whole sunflower kernels

The great thing about sunflower though, is that in addition to feeding the sunflower seed whole in-shell, you can also feed sunflower kernels. Sunflower kernels are sunflower seeds that have had their shells removed by a dehuller.  These kernels are sized to be either whole kernels or broken kernels in medium or small size pieces.  We call these hulled sunflower kernels "sunflower chips" and one of our most popular products is our Mother Nature's Medium Sunflower Chips. Sunflower chips provide a "super accessible" high energy food source for birds.  In addition, they are a "no mess" solution because there are no shells to clean up under the feeder and the broken kernels will not sprout. 

If you buy the fine size sunflower kernels - Fine Sunflower Chips, you can use these chips in place of, or combined with, Nyjer seed in a finch tube feeder.  The small sized chips will work just fine with the small size holes you will find in finch feeders.  In fact, my experience is that the finches love the fine sunflower chips as much or more than Nyjer seed.  

So hopefully, I have demystified black oil sunflowers a bit for you and you will understand why they are an important food for backyard bird feeding.