Buying a bird table

[21again]

We want to do our bit for the birds by buying a cheap bird table.

Has anyone bought one of the B&Q range ones (the £12 one, not the Gardman one) and if so can you please tell me what the height of it is as it doesn't say on the site.

Ta.

[dogsbody]

I wish I had seen this BEFORE I went to B&Q this morning, then I could have measured it for you.

Generally, cheaper ones are smaller, but no less useful for that. If size is important because of cats, ours jump a good 5 feet in the air from a standing start, usually end up swinging on the hanging table by their front paws looking a little foolish. So, it may not really matter how tall they are, rather where you put it, somewhere that the cats can't sneak up on it?

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not a fan of bird tables, myself. They get too dirty, they are too easy for cats, rats, squirrels, woodpigeons & magpies to plunder.

I've got a couple of fat ball feeders strung from branches, hanging baskets and hooks around the garden. The most popular ones are inside the Camellia and Choisya bushes (because the birds have cover there)

[Alison]

I bought one of the £9.99 B&Q bird feeder station things the other week, it's down by the pond on the lottie and looking good. Not sure of the height, maybe about 5' ish? It has two arms you can hang feeders off and a tray with holes in for open feeding and is being used well.

[DaveJ]

I bought a nice bird feature last year. It is a wooden post with four wooden 'arms' - basically it looks like the wooden signposts you get in the country marking a footpath or bridle route. Each 'arm' as an hook on it for hanging feeders. The manufacturer is Tom Chambers. The standard bird table I used to have was becoming more occupied by the local cats and pigeons than the wild birds! With hanging feeders at least you can decide what to attract.

[Liza]

I bought one of the £9.99 B&Q bird feeder station things the other week, it's down by the pond on the lottie and looking good. Not sure of the height, maybe about 5' ish? It has two arms you can hang feeders off and a tray with holes in for open feeding and is being used well.

I have just bought a feeding station and the birds love it.

No mess to clear up (Any bits that fall on the floor are hoovered up by my labrador )

As TS said tables are messy, just about to get rid of mine.

[janeyo]

wilkos have one for a tenner, in their book or order online for store pick up.

[21again]

Thanks for all of the replies folks but I had to go to B&Q this morning so didn't get to read half of the posts until I came back.

I went to B&M first to take a look at their bird tables (our Wilkinson didn't have any in stock).

I'm glad I did, for the sake of an extra £4 the B&Q one is way better than the others that I have seen.

You could push the B&M one over using a couple of fingers, it was so light and flimsy.

The B&Q one won't blow over, I weighed it and it is just under 11lbs so quite sturdy.

It took me a couple of hours to put it together as it was just lots of pieces of wood, screws and nails, glad I had a power drill/screwdriver to hand. Nothing was pre drilled, marked or anything.

I made one mistake though when I put the outer edges of the table on, I was supposed to leave a 5mm gap inbetween them in the corners, supposed to aid cleaning and for drainage.

Oops!

I didn't leave any gaps. I am wondering if I would be ok drilling a hole in each corner, that way the water would have somewhere to go, what do you think experts.

My husband said I should have left it for him to do when he came home from work. JOKE! He is totally cack handed, he would have thrown it through the window.

I sat on the hall floor assembling it so it was a bit fiddly at times but couldn't get to the work bench under all of the cr*p in the shed.

Here is the finished product which I don't think was too bad for the price (£12.99).

[Snadger]

Only one word to say.............pallets!

[21again]

Only one word to say.............pallets!

Yep, I would say that is exactly what part of it is made from, some parts are better quality.

However having a husband that has not got the slightest idea at diy this was an easier option than having a go with a pallet.

[Jeanied]

Great work 21again! I would drill some drainage holes if I were you as the tray would start to get a bit soggy - as will the grain you put on there. You could also hang stuff off the corners. Bird tables are good for ground feeding birds in smaller gardens - before I got rid of mine I used to get the blackbirds, robins and thrushes feeding - now they tend to look on wistfully at the hanging feeders while the goldfinches have a field day.

[21again]

Great work 21again! I would drill some drainage holes if I were you as the tray would start to get a bit soggy - as will the grain you put on there. You could also hang stuff off the corners. Bird tables are good for ground feeding birds in smaller gardens - before I got rid of mine I used to get the blackbirds, robins and thrushes feeding - now they tend to look on wistfully at the hanging feeders while the goldfinches have a field day.

Yep, I will search for a largeish drill bit tomorrow and drill a hole in each corner.

I always have lots of small bits of bran flakes left that my husband won't eat, can I put that out for the birds?

[Jeanied]

Yes I would put branflakes out - porridge, muesli etc - I put lots of odd scraps out there for the birds - at the moment I have 4 over-ripe pears, hoping the blackbirds will like those. They have all but stripped the crab apple tree (ably assisted by the blackcap and fieldfares).

[binley100]

My bird table is the garage roof. Any other feeders I hang out get stolen by the squirrels and they don't just raid they take the whole damn thing.

[Jeanied]

* chuckle - Binley, I use my shed roof to chuck stuff onto! (don't have a garage!)