So Mrs.Webb buys a lovely iron birdfeeder. She had been asking me to make a wooden bird table but one that the squirrels and rats couldn't climb. I'd already worked out the cost of timber, fixings, barbed wire and wood treatment. Plasters, bandages and some of that stuff that naughty boys have to swallow when they curse a lot - ah castor oil!
No need - she announces unwrapping the carton to reveal the several metal bits that I am now instructed to assemble. We put it out in the garden in a position that we can spy on from the patio doors. The wind is making the feeders swing about a fair bit - in fact too much for a safe bird landing. However, there are two fixed platforms. One, a ring, holds the water dish which promptly freezes solid overnight. The other, a wire basket type tray is for seed and the like. Mrs. Webb insists that the robins require mealworms. Mealworms! Where do you get them from. Before we discovered where I had a brainwave. Maggots from the tackle shop. Great.
The next day I arrive home with said half pint of maggots for just over a quid. There's just one problem. The robin's taking about twenty a day and I've got ten thousand maggots rapidly heading for old age (and chrysalis stage).
Let's try something then to arrest the situation. The maggot box is placed in a corner of the chest freezer. This morning - what to expect. Have they frozen into a solid lump? How can you separate just a few at a time for daily issue?
No worries. Remarkably (and to my utter amazement) the maggots froze individually and were rattling in the box like rice. Easy to dish out daily and as good as fresh. Today the robin has been feeding again with no risk of the maggots squirming their way out of the tray either.
Answer me this. Is the fact that they froze apart and not in a lump down to the meal that's put in the mix with them? Or is it because they carry on wriggling right up to the point that the freeze to death and so don't cling together? Maybe a mini-cam in the freezer next time I try it will reveal more!
3 comments:
Wally,
Well, I've found your Blog, so here's a comment. Mealworms etc.Have you not heard of Haiths of Cleethorpes.www.haiths.com Give them a look up,they can provide everything for our feathered friends.They have a super catalogue in full colour and I buy the "Huskfree advance with dried mealworms". Very tasty so I believe. OK.
You need to be careful here. Check the maggots close up.
There may be a printed message on each one saying something like "This maggot is part of a multi-maggot pint. Single distribution of this maggot is forbidden."
Don't upset "the powers that be".
Thanks Gorav & Eddie 2 Sox. I'll check out that website and let you know what Mrs. Webb says.
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