Nyjer seed

[haydn92]

i recently as in today i went out to go to my friends house and me mum said do u wanna check out the pet shop, so we checked it out and i bought a bag of nyjer seed, for my goldfinches but what i want to know is what other finches can eeat nyjer seed as in zebbies

[jusdeb]

Yep sure can mate ,,its a great winter seed for adding extra oil to the finches diet to help them get through the cold weather .

Use it sparingly in summer though .

[jusdeb]

ooops forgot to say "just my opinion " " could be wrong "

[haydn92]

can i store it away
or will it rot

[jusdeb]

not sure about the shelf life of seeds.

[nirep]

I freeze my bulk seed in an air tight container like the flour or rice plastic containers from the supermarkets.

[Tiaris]

Niger will store as well as any other seed in dry air tight conditions. I'd be very reluctant to freeze it though - it may kill the seed. I have grave doubts as to the relative nutritional value of dry seed which won't sprout. If its imported Niger it will be already dead.
Niger can be offered to any finches but its mostly just the serinus & carduelis species (cup-nesters) which will eat it in any real quantity. As Deb said its high in fat so use sparingly for species such as parrotfinches outside of winter.

[Tiaris]

Forgot to mention niger is also an excellent green food for cup-nesters when grown to the spent flower stage. Easy to grow (if seed is alive) especially in warm weather and best fed as soon as the petals drop off the flowers.

[nirep]

With niger seed you can buy as viable or non viable seed.I buy Australian niger seed the sprouting version.Bit dearer but worth it.As freezing and maybe killing the seed I tried this as an experiment and still got germination happening.

In relevance to dead seed or irradiated I was told irradiation only destroys the germination enzyme and aprox 30 percent of the vite B 12. Your omega's, fats, vitamins and base amino acids are only effected below 1 percent. In all reality it has such a small effect it is not worth mentioning. Many of the foods we consume have been irradiated which also destroys bacteria. It is a myth that irradiated foods are void of nutrients.

I got the above info while enquiring about feeding chicks with irradiated hemp seed as I questioned the nutritional value.

[GregH]

Just to coplicate things here regarding seed storage. Maintaining seed viability is only essential if you intend to germinate it but the conditions needed vary according to the species. That said keeping the seed dry (<10%) not only helps maintain viability (except in some albuminous seeds like coconuts and crinum lillies) but retards fungal growth and makes the seed less attractive to insect pests. So to my original point oily seeds like niger (I'm not politically correct) rapidly lose viability when frozen so just keep it in the refrigerator if it's viable. The same precautions go for the storage of all oil-seed - eg.rape/canola, sunflower, safflower, linseed and chia. As for grass seed like the various millets; storage in the freezer will extend viability for decades compared to shelf stored dry seed. Most imported seed are heat treated (not irriadiated) to devitalize the germ so do a germination test before buying or storing large amounts and that goes for any seed.