This is the fist year we haven't feed sunflower seed to the birds, right now its running twenty dollars for a forthy lb. bag. I guess there have to get along on cracked corn this winter.
The price hasn't slowed Lindy down. I really do think she believes she can save the economy by herself.
I have some seeds to plant along the edge of the yard in the Spring!
They are the gray striped variety.
I figure early next fall, I'll cut them and hang them somewhere to dry.
Just trying to figure out "where", so that the mice won't get to them.
QuoteThey are the gray striped variety.
My wife feeds the grey sunflower seeds to her chickens, apparently our black seeds have too much oil and force the fowls to moult. ???
We routinely feed about 250 pounds of Black Oil sunflower seeds through the course of a winter season!
We figured we could dry these seeds while still on the head, then in the winter just hang a few of the heads at a time outside where the birds can get to them.
Chuck I tried that a few years ago,planted a bunch of sunflowers but the wild canaries ate them before the yellow flower part feel off. All we had was a empty heads ;D .
I tried to grow them too. One year there was not many that had meat inside,all hulls. ::) Than the birds are right after them. Than there is the root ball to fool with. They have to be stored somewhere dry.Just too much of a bother for me. I noticed the high price too and the 10 pounds off a bag too. No more 50 pounds. But I do enjoy seeing them come to the feeder. My cat needs something to do too. But I do enjoy growing the differant colors ones. No big heads,just alot of pretty blossoms. No big root balls either.
Growing them in my area will be a fast way to make enemies. I farm a 200 acre plot that many years ago the folks that lived in the rental house next to it decided they wanted to grow sunflowers. They of course spread to the field via the birds. The guy renting the farm land did nothing to control weeds so the sunflowers really took over. Even ten years later we still get them showing up.
The last winter I fed birds here I had 30 bluejays, if not more, horde most of it and dropped it in the fields on their way to the woods to stash it. The tater fields near by had sunflowers come up between here and the woods. They don't call them buzzards, gorby's for nothing. The sunflowers don't get invasive after the first germination here, thank goodness. ;D :D
$20 for 50 lbs of sunflowers? I haven't seen them that cheap for years. :D Beef suet used to be free from the butcher shops until they figured on making a buck, stopped bothering with that to.
I had quite a few sunflowers growing really well, right up until Irene came through and blew them all over >:(
I pretty much gave up after that. :D