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garyh wrote:I tried the winnower a few times,found it wasn't worth the effort ,so now i moisten down the husks and left over seed and feed it to the chooks ,not much left after that,garyh
I'm with Gary....winnower's are a waste of time....one year I kept all the wasted seed from my hoppers into a barrel....cleaned it up after 6 months to get a 4 litre ice-cream container in usable seed....."clean" seed given to the neighbours chooks and winnower off to the next bird sale....one less item taking up space in my bird room.
It appears everyone has had different experiences with winnowing seed. Interestingly, there has been a shift in opinion over the past couple years.
I used to dump the feeders in a plastic sack daily and save these sack up for a friend to put in there wild bird feeders. Now that I have so many birds, it appears they are lazy and will only peck so deep into their feeders. Every evening I pour the feeders into a bucket and fill them with fresh seeds.
I save these buckets till I had time to sit and use the seed cleaner properly, and filled a 60 litre bin with clean seed. Once viewing the window of seed cleaner full - I turn off the vacuum, empty the seed cleaner back into bucket and put it through the cleaner again. I believe, personally, it is a matter of how much time you want and can put into cleaning the seed. Regards.
I winnowed about 6 x 60 litre drums a few weeks ago.I got about 1.5 x 60 L drum back. It was a few hours work getting it to a good clean state. But when you consider the seed would be worth atleast $120 then the additives on top of that it is a bit of a waste to throw the lot out. There was still enough for the chooks and wild birds to get a feed too. I chitted about 2/3 of it and froze it aver about 4 days. I still need to find a better way to get the feaces out . I to sieve that part but need to do it at the same time as winnowing to save time.
Hi gomer,maybe you could put some 6mm wire mesh or smaller over the drum and pour your used seed through that into the drum to catch the larger droppings,anything smaller that goes through should be winnowed up with the husks.
I'm talking about finch mix here,parrot mix is hopeless to winnow yet you can get the droppings out easier with the higher suction. Craig
I have thought about having a vibrating screen system Craig on a angle so all the rubbish drops off the end.And all the seed goes through it. Just pouring it through mesh also collects nesting material and feathers but does work. Your idea more often would work.
