Backyard Birder: Spring Cleaning & Maintenance
Backyard Birds Spring Cleaning and Maintenance :
Early spring before the hustle and bustle of gardening comes around I like to do bird cleaning and maintenance.
I round up all of the bird feeders, houses and baths and give them the evil eye. :) Just kidding.
I scrub them all down, bleach them and set them to dry.
If anything came apart or needs painting, I take care of that and then my birds are taken care of until our spring visitors arrive.
How often do I clean Bird houses or Nesting Boxes :
I do a this once a year after the birds have fledged.
I give the birdhouse a good cleaning and dunk them in a bleach solution.
A cup of bleach in a 5 gallon bucket. Hose it all down and hang it up for another year.
How often do I clean Bird Feeders :
I always start the spring with clean feeders.
My platform birdfeeders are harder to clean, because I have IP camera installed in the feeder.
However, every two weeks, I remove all of the seed, spray it with bleach and water solution, hose it down and wait for it to dry. Add more seed and wait for the birds to arrive. They usually are perched on the neighbours' trees and complaining about the time it's taking me to get out of the way.
I probably should do this once a week, but I do it every two weeks.
Suet, Tube and Peanut feeders cleaning:
I do this once a week. The suet does stick to everything.
I use a bleach solution and scrub them clean. A bottle brush and a toothbrush really helps.
The Suet feeders and Peanut feeder, I used the same bleach solution and scrub them down.
Rinse everything with clean water and let dry before filling them with fresh suet, peanuts and seed.
How often to clean a Bird Bath?
For me it really depends how busy the bird bath is.
I hose down and scrub my bird baths every day, but I only sanitize the bird baths once a week with a bleach solution.
The claypot saucers I pour in half water and half bleach and let it sit in the sun for a while.
I cover the saucer with a garbage can lid until I get to it.
Using vinegar instead of bleach:
Just mix it half and half. Rinse everything down and you are good to go.
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