12 Old-Time Winter Bird Feeding Tricks Grandmothers Swore By (and 2 That Actually HURT Birds)

Every winter, somebody stood at my counter worried that the peanut butter pine cone her grandmother taught her to make would choke the chickadees. Cornell's FeederWatch program looked into it: there is no documented evidence for this. But the bacon grease saved in a can by the stove is the one I'd gently take out of her hands. After 30 years running a wild bird supply store in Michigan, I heard every old trick there is. Grandma was right far more often than she was wrong. In this video: 1. Suet when the nights turn cold 2. The old Christmas tree as shelter 3. Evergreen boughs near the feeder 4. The brush pile out back 5. Peanuts in a rigid steel mesh feeder 6. Peanut butter pine cones 7. A pan of unfrozen water 8. Feeding through a blizzard 9. Black-oil sunflower seed 10. Leaving the garden standing 11. Sweeping snow and scattering millet 12. Sterilized crushed eggshells Plus the two old tricks that actually hurt birds: bacon grease and the mesh onion bag suet holder. Tell me in the comments: which of the twelve did you grow up with, and what's the first bird at your feeder on the coldest morning of the year? If you fret about the birds when the wind chill drops, subscribe. Every week I share what 30 years behind a bird store counter taught me, the things you'll never find printed on a seed bag. Grandma had the birds right twelve times out of fourteen, and with a wire cage and a block of plain suet, you can make it all fourteen. #WinterBirdFeeding #BackyardBirds #SuetFeeder #BirdFeeding