How Can I Advertise My Restaurant?

[bednobs]

I got a bird table for Xmas and flowing advice from lovely ABers got some dried mealworms
I put it outside yesterday about 1/2 way down my 200ft garden. It's the type with a roof and open sides.
No-one appears to have made a booking yet, and I've had no enquiries.
How do I let the customers know there's free food available, or will they just come?
Once they start coming, how often should I check it?

[jno]

word just gets around, I think. It seems to get around squirrels faster, but maybe that's just London.

[bednobs]

do squirrels like mealworms?

[Lie-in King]

When the squirrels find it, I suspect you'll need to replenish every...10 minutes or so? :-)

[lady-janine]

What a long way away for you to watch. can you move it nearer the house?
They will arrive by tweet of beak. Don't know your area but my feeders are the enclosed sort or the rooks and gulls would just gobble everything.

[jno]

I doubt it, we offer a more veggie diet, seeds and things. But ours hangs from a pole so they have a lovely time swinging it back and forth so the food drops out of the cage onto the ground. They they have to fight hyena pigeons for it.

[bednobs]

I don't want to put it closer to the house- there are many things nearer that the cat could climb on to get them!

[Lie-in King]

https://tinyurl.com/y2rwd8g2

"Yes, squirrels can consume any bird food from seeds to live or dried mealworms. So, keep the bird feeder out of the squirrel's sight and reach or change it to a feeder with a cage."

[bobbinwales]

Have you tried tweeting the service?

[Vagus]

It will take a little while for the birds to find it bednobs, be patient.
Also, if you can position it near some bushes or trees so there’s somewhere for any feeding birds to nip off to and hide if they feel threatened may help.

[Bazile]

The reason for the lack of interest is your prices

[anneasquith]

How often do you change the menu ?

[jno]

will they think they're being rooked, Bazile?

[andres]

Our garden is like a menagerie. Hanging feeders for the small birds and suet blocks in plastic cages. Pasta for the magpies in a plastic funnel attached to a pole. Bird seed for the pigeons. Fat balls in containers for the jackdaws, starlings ,blue tits, etc. Two squirrel feeders . All the birds gravitate towards different foods and the squirrels just lift the lids and help themselves to the peanuts in their feeders. There never seems to be any squabbling amongst the birds. The only predator is a neighbours cat.

[jennyjoan]

Mine found their way but mustn't have enjoyed my menu so they have left.

[ubasses]

Vagus makes a good point about bushes and trees, they like to feel safe. Ours is between a large conifer hedge and a silver birch, they swoop down to feed and back to their haven. Other birds then seem to find out it's there. Sometimes looks like the Hitchcock film in the garden.

[bobbinwales]

Which Tier were you in?

[hellywelly4]

They love sunflower hearts. Also worth spending the extra to get squirrel proof feeders, otherwise they will clear the feeders every day.

[jno]

same here, jj, sometimes they're here all the time, other times the tables are never cleared. Winter should be the best time for a restaurant where birds can come in from the cold and sit down to a hearty mouthful of seed, but here have been very few here lately. (No snow or anything to make regular feeding hard, though.)

[Buenchico]

Has your bird table got a 'lookout point' for the birds?
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/all-about-bird-tables/where-to-put-a-bird-table

This might also be relevant:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/all-about-bird-tables/hygiene-and-maintenance

Birds are naturally suspicious of anything new in a garden though. Once they get used to seeing the table there, you'll probably start getting lots of visitors to it.

[Paigntonian]

I have a bird feeder on my lounge window sill. It's been there a year and not a single bird has visited. Baffled. My neighbour has a feeder in his garden and birds flock to it.