Woke Up This Mornin'... Got Myself a Finch Bag

Pictured at top: To the left is the home-made Finch Feeder bag, to the far right, you will see the Walmart-purchased finch feeder. Read on to see how I made the finch bag!

Above is the ready-to use Finch bag.

Below, see a close-up of the bag I made from stockings.

Word must have gotten out in the Goldfinch Community that Sunflowers were on the menu around here! My Black Sunflower crop this year was being decimated by goldfinches, and my attempts to ply them with plenty of boring yellow sunflowers did not work this time around. No sir. Not only did they eat dozens of yellow sunflowers, they developed a taste for the Black variety as well. So much for next Spring's profits on the sale of Moulin Rouge Black Sunflowers!

So I got a finch bag, thinking this will give those devilish sunflower-munchers something to chomp on instead of my plants. WRONG! I ended up with 10 times as many goldfinches-- where before I only had 4 or so, I now have an entire flock of dozens.

The bag shown in the picture is a ready-made bag which I purchased at WalMart for about $5-$6-- it included the seed. Not wanting to drive all the way back to WalMart for more finch-bags, I made some more of my own.

Finch-Bag Making:

Supplies:

1 bag Thistle Seed

pantyhose feet in a light color/knee-high stockings will work too

rubber bands, twine or string

sharp object for poking holes

I happened to have lots of pink ballet tights which I am not currently using, so I cut the foot/ankle portions out of a pair of tights for the body of the bag. You could also use white or a light color of those knee-high trouser socks. Anything which is light in color and has a mesh type weave will work. Old lingerie-washing bags or other light colored mesh bags are perfect.

I then filled the tights with seed, packing it tightly. You want the seeds to "poke out" of the weave to entice the finches.

I tied the top of the hose with some string-- you can use anything so long as it won't hurt the birds. I would not recommend twist-ties or anything metal.

Then I tied a long piece of twine to the top of the bag. I tied the bag to a stumpy protrusion on a pinion tree and wound the bag around the tree until it came to rest on the tree-- the panty hose sort of velcro'ed themselves to the tree. This makes the bag more stable for finches to feed. Then I stabbed the bag repeatedly with a meat fork which was very satisfying on a number of levels. Do not make the holes so large that the seeds spill out.

After you poke some holes, you will want to squeeze the bag a bit to get the seeds to pop out in an inviting manner. At this point, you have a finch-ready seed bag.

Note that I did position my home-made bag against a tree to make it easier for the finches to climb aboard. The homemade bag close-up also demonstrates the seeds poking out which is really vital if you want finches to feed from the bag!

An advantage to the homemade bag is this: The larger the holes of the mesh, the faster seeds will spill out. I would estimate that 1/3 of the seeds placed in the store-bought bag spill onto the ground. With the bag I made, very few seeds are wasted.