My first attempts at filling our new bird feeder were not too elegant. Let’s just say that as many birds dined on the deck as did on the bird feeder. The problem is that it’s not possible to hold a soft-sided bag so that the contents will pour evenly. It comes out in a rush, or it doesn’t come out at all. When you add the complication of having to hold the top of the feeder open at the same time, there just aren’t enough hands to make it work.
My solution was a bottomless cup. I found mega-sized drink container, one that was made of a plastic that was rigid enough to retain its shape, and soft enough not to shatter when it’s cut, and cut the bottom off. When you place this inside the feed bag, it creates a smooth channel for the seed to flow through and stops the bag collapsing.
The one thing that you need to get right is getting a decent seal around the top of the cup, otherwise if you tip too much, seed will flow out above the cup.
Then it’s just a matter of tucking the bag under your arm and moving your arm and, if necessary, your body to control the rate of flow, and there’s a hand spare to keep the spring-loaded feeder-top open..
Since I first made this, we have begun to buy 25 lb. bags of seed, and rather than carry this out to the deck, I use the same trick with the cup to fill three plastic jugs with screw-on caps, and I can pour from the jug into the bird feeder directly.
I have a video of using the bottomless cup on my YouTube channel:
