The more birds that find and return to your feeders, the more often you need to fill them and maintain them. To keep up with demand, it makes sense to buy bird seed in bulk! Stocking up during a sale saves you money, plus it cuts down your trips to the store, which saves you time. It’s a win for you and the birds, but it’s important to keep excess food fresh, protect it from mold and free of rodent and insect infestations. Luckily, it’s easy to keep the birds in your backyard happy and healthy with these bird feeding tips. Heres what you need to know about how to store bird seed. Check out the 10
Option 3: Galvanized Metal Cans For Larger Seed Amounts
Sadly, mice proved to be a problem for my lovely plastic bin storage this past year. Although we are still unsure of how they entered the house in the first place, they were drawn to the basement’s seed storage. They chewed through the side of the sunflower heart bin despite the bins being made of very heavy plastic. Opening a seed bin and seeing tiny mouse eyes staring up at you can be a little startling. The mice began storing peanuts and seed throughout the house. Sigh. These newcomers were entertaining to our cats, so they were happy, but my husband and I weren’t as happy.
Thus, I once bought a medium-sized 20-gallon galvanized metal storage can with a tight-fitting lid (left in the above photo) along with some seed at my neighborhood bird store. A twenty-five-pound bag of heavy peanuts or fifty pounds of seed should be able to be stored in these size cans, which are larger than the tiny galvanized metal pails the store also sells. (I later bought one of the little pails for peanut hearts and another of these for millet.) (.
This metal worked well for me when I tested it, but I usually buy extra seed in the middle of winter and whenever the bird store has an off-season sale. I wanted to make sure that everything would fit into the cans. I thus made the decision to purchase three additional galvanized metal cans, this time from the Home Depot, a nearby home improvement store. These larger cans have a capacity of thirty-one gallons, which I believe should be sufficient to hold two fifty-pound bags of seed, or nearly so. (In the image above, these are the three cans on the right.) I now use the larger cans for safflower, nyjer seed, sunflower hearts/chips, and peanuts in the shell, and the medium-sized can for peanuts.
Scoops For Seed Storage Containers
It goes without saying that you must move the bird seed from the storage containers to the feeders in order to fill them. (See photo below. I use several 30-ounce plastic jars that were previously filled with Archer Farms trail mix (available at Target). These, in my opinion, are a good size without the lids to scoop out a respectable quantity of seed, usually enough to replenish or fill one or more feeders. Without spilling any seeds, I can hold three of these filled jars outside in each hand.
These jars easily allow seed to pour into most feeders. The exception is my thinner nyjer tube feeders. For those, I use the jar to substitute nyjer seed into an old plastic pitcher. I can fill the tubes outside with less spilling thanks to the pitcher spout.
Birdseed Home From the Store
I carry the fifty-pound bag to my kitchen door and place it on the floor when I get home from the bird store. If fifty pounds is more than you can handle, you may need to hire someone to help you carry the bag inside or use a dolly or wagon to wheel it inside your home. (Also see Gwen’s comment below. Alternatively, you could buy more manageable, smaller weight bags.
After entering, I unseal the bag and place one of my kitchen tins next to it. I load my kitchen storage tin with as much seed as it can hold by using one of my trail mix jars to scoop seed into the tin. And I replenish any feeders that require that kind of seed. The remaining seed is then poured into its bin in the basement after I carry (or drag, if it’s still heavy) what’s left in the bag downstairs. Then I recycle the paper seed bag. Done!.
FAQ
Can you store bird seed in the garage?
Does bird seed need to be refrigerated?
Where is the best place to put bird seed?