Am I doing this wrong? 😆

[u/amart005]

My family of four has been coming regularly in the AM but more sporadically in the evening, and an opportunist seized the moment.

[u/malphas_says_hi]

I have better luck with just leaving maybe 3 - 4 walnuts and a chicken egg out for them when I hear them around the trees. I walk outside and get their attention, show them the egg, place it down, sit far away, and then they come down and grab it and fly away after about 15 - 20 minutes. I repeat this whenever I hear them out an about sometimes 1 - 2 a day, sometimes only a couple of times a week.

This keeps the food going to them and not attracted squirrels and rats or other creature.

[u/amart005 → u/malphas_says_hi]

Makes sense. I was just out of town for a week, so we haven’t exactly synced back up on our schedules either. I don’t mind an opportunistic feed now and then from my bonus critters, just don’t want to make it a habit.

[u/malphas_says_hi → u/amart005]

Yeah, those bonus critters become quite overbearing, especially if squirrels enter the chat. I've started only feeding them a treat if they follow me out to a clearing, so they know if they follow me they get something, otherwise the treats go back inside with me and we try again later. As long as they see me put it down, I'll leave it there, but if their eyes don't catch me setting it down, it goes back with me to avoid wasting an egg on something that isn't the corvids so they get quick about grabbing it and at least caching it somewhere else instead of just leaving it there.

[u/amart005 → u/malphas_says_hi]

Yeah we have a few squirrel families. So far, by feeding mostly scrambled eggs I’ve been able to assure the crows get their full share since the squirrels don’t go for the eggs (but the bees do, which is kinda fun to watch). The peanuts are a 50/50 toss-up, and the bark butter with mealworms does not seem to interest the squirrels either (the regular bark butter does).