For the first time in what seems like forever the forecast is for cooler temperatures here in TN for a whole week. This has got my mind thinking of fall and winter and the things I need to do to get ready for them. I thought I’d take a few minutes to share them with you to help you with your fall/winter feeding preparation.
Wash Those Feeders And Baths
Fall is the perfect time to take down and clean your feeders if you haven’t done so in a while. The same for your baths. When winter comes, so do the holidays. We both know you’ll have plenty more to do that will make your feeder and bath cleaning keep falling to the bottom of the list. Do it now and be sure it’s done. Remember, winter is the time your backyard friends depend on you the most to provide clean food and water for them. Make sure the feeders and baths are safe for them to be eating and drinking from.
All you need is a bucket with a 10% bleach solution with dish soap thrown in for good measure. If you have tube feeders get one of those special brushes made for them and make sure to take them apart. When you’ve finished washing them just dump out the bucket, rinse it thoroughly and fill it with clean water for rinsing off your feeders. Let them dry in the sun until there’s no wet spots and put them back together.
Birdbaths can be cleaned out with the same solution and a brush or you can use Comet. Again, make sure you rinse it off completely so no residue remains.
Break It Into Smaller Pieces
If you’re like me, you look into your backyard and garage and think “Holy crap, I didn’t know I had that many feeders! Don’t be scared. Just resolve to wash one feeder a day until you’re finished. Don’t leave it as one huge project you’ll never get to. Take it from a master in this area. LOL!
Can You Help Us?
Do you have any fall feeding tips or tricks you’d like to share? Leave a comment below and let all of us benefit from your wisdom and creativity.
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one at a time. if you are like me you like to procrastinate with every big or small project. a couple of suggestions.. just start. ive found that it takes me more time to decide if im going to work on my project than the actual project takes to complete. the other suggestion is decide to do one thing before lunch and then another after lunch. then you will realize you have more time and get them both done before lunch and have more time to watch college football since it is in season in the fall:) good post
I totally agree that the dreading takes up much more time than the actual task. I make sure I know what I’m going to do each day before I sit down and get to it. Being self-employed makes it imperative not to let things just build up and go undone. Steady but consistent is the way to go.
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Clean your birdhouses too.
Critters may have used it since birds left it in the summer. So good to clean and get ready for coming winter.
Birds will often use as shelter from wind and rain during those difficult winter months
An excellent point.
I clean out and leave my birdhouses up all winter for just that reason. I have downy woodpeckers that love to roost and remodel a bit during the winter.
It’s a real treat to go out my back door early in the morning and see a little head looking back at me from my bluebird box.
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