Wild Bird Seed Mix 4kg

I have carried out a fairly serious trial of this bird food because I was astounded by the amount of waste generated by relatively expensive mixes and wanted to have an accurate comparison.I wanted to be able to actually quantify the problem and have some data to back up my gut feeling that we might have been wasting our money.The Set-up:-We have a small suburban garden In Manchester, over the years we have noted an impressive 42 different species visiting or directly overhead, of which 26 have fed in the garden.Because we are plagued by a large flock of feral pigeons, which devour everything, our main bird feeders hang inside a pigeon proof (and squirrel proof) construction (nicknamed 'the hutch') based on a traditional bird table but encased in sections of 50mm square wire fencing.This allows the entry of everything up-to and including Starlingsand we have noted 15 species feeding inside including all the usual suspects but also Nuthatches, Long tailed tits and although I don't know what they find there our inquisitive Wrens.Inside the hutch the food seed mix is dispensed from one or more 'peanut style' wire hangers, much falls through and collects on the table area allowing the ground feeders to rummage through.When this builds up we normally scoop it up and scatter it on the patio or the nearby pavement ( this sadly attracts the pigeons more than anything else, and is the real stimulus for this experiment.The Test:-For the test I poured the entire 4kg bag of Armitage Wild Bird Seed Mix into a plastic bucket and thoroughly mixed in a 500g bag of RSPCA Wild Bird Suet Nibbles (the yellow ones) and 25g of dried meal-worms.Beginning on the morning of the 16/03/2014Having completely cleaned out 'the hutch' the following regimen was adopted:-Each day any seed remaining in the hanger (usually very little) was scattered on the table area and the hanger was filled with fresh mix from the bucket. A further cupful of the 'fresh mix' sprinkled on the table.Every second day any food remaining on the table was deemed "Rejected by the Birds" and collected and stored in second bucket.The food in the 'fresh mix ran out on the 30th of march and the final clear out of rejected feed was made on the 31st of March.Inspection of the reject feed showed (unsurprisingly) no suet nibbles and no meal worms,The result:-The total weight of the mix rejected by my mix of regular feeders was 2,758 gramsWhich represents 68.95% of the original 4kg bag !!!This means that effectively 70% of this food is waste!! It would have in the past gone to attract the pigeons.Comments:-I am not directing criticism specifically at this company's product.My subjective observations were that the birds actually were attracted to this mix in normal numbers and for normal durations, (if anything I think the feed may have out performed some others we have used in the past) but 70% waste means I shall not be using it again.I shall conduct an identical experiment using the slightly more expensive "Alan Titchmarsh - Seed Supreme " brand, and possibly some others......But already I think that the economic solution for bird lovers such as ourselves, would actually be to avoid these commercial mixes and blends altogether, and buy bags of specific seeds that are actually eaten by the species we want to attract and make our own mix.This may cost much more in initial outlay but it seems the cheap alternative is a false economy.

This is an ideal way to feed the wild birds that visit your garden. The pack is large enough to be economical, without being unmanageable. More importantly, the mixture of seeds will cater for various tastes: at any rate, the small birds in my garden have a great appetite for it, digging away enthusiastically to get the particular type of seed they want. I use the mix in conjunction with  Gardman Heavy Duty Seed Feeder .In short, this mix is a one-stop solution for your bird seed needs.

This bird seed consists of wheat, split maize, millet, sunflower seeds, red dari and rapeseed oil according to the bag. I don't know the ratio of each and I don't know much about bird seeds but just wanted to continue feeding the birds with something cheaper than my previous bird seed. I add peanuts and monkey nuts. The birds in our garden vary each year so it's hard to say if it attracts a good selection of birds. At the moment it's mainly crows, pigeons, doves, jackdaws robins and wrens ( I think) plus some squirrels but that could change. Some of this seed seems to lie around for a while but in the end it all goes. I would like a wider selection to give to the birds but think that giving them something is much better than nothing.

I bought this bird feed after thinking what good value it seemed to be. However, I now know why. It is bulked out with cheap wheat which the birds aren't overly keen on, and after feeding from the bird feeders, there was a lot of mess on the ground from the wheat they didn't want to eat. From now on I am buying sunflower hearts, mealworms and fat balls, and that is all. Don't waste your money.

This is a variety of seeds but a lot of them seem to be corn which my small visitors do not like and which attracts the larger birds such as pigeons which quite frankly are a nuisance. Do not think I will buy again but is proabably more than adequate if you live in a different area and enjoy the larger birds in your garden.

Very few sunflower or large seeds, its mainly tiny seeds that fall through my ground feeder. The only birds that eat it are wood pigeons which is a shame as I bought it for my resident dunnock and they just flick it around and dont eat it.I have since thrown it away and bought some more substantial seed from a local shop.

Great price for a reasonably learge bag of feed. Much better value than the garden centres provide. I've used it on both bird table and feeder and the birds react well to it. It doesn't last very long once the birds find it. There seems to be a good mixture of different seeds which suit a variety of birds feeding habits.

I agree with another reviewer, this seed attracts large birds, particularly jackdaws. Also, I have noticed that only the black seeds are picked out and all the rest just stay there for weeks. I have stopped buying it but maybe it's different depending on the area (I am in South East England).