After the Global Bird Fair 2023
The Global Bird Fair at Rutland is over for another year. Last year a high temperature warning, this year torrential rain, but we survived!
For anyone who has never visited, it is a truly epic event. Set up on the Rutland show ground, in numerous huge marquees, there is something for everyone. Specialist holiday ideas, all kinds of bird and garden products, lectures and charity representation. Andrew and I were very busy on the stand, and gave a talk this year, so had limited time to visit many other stands, but highly recommend it if you haven’t been before.
Cleaner Peanut Feeder
This year, we had two new primary products, both of which we hope to be selling at some point in October. The first is our CLEANER PEANUT FEEDER. We have all seen grim mesh tubes full of mouldy peanuts, that allow birds to transfer disease onto the feeder through foot contact. Honestly, how many people clean a Peanut Feeder?
CPF is radically different, the Peanuts are in a sealed compartment, and fed behind a rain protected grill, over an internal cone, that ensures the Peanuts are consumed in age order. A secondary grill is provided which dramatically reduces foot contact. CPF is made in the UK and has worldwide Patents pending. Cleaning is easy, with two components that drop apart and can be washed in minutes.
It is worth mentioning “Aflatoxins”. These relate to fungal infections in the soil the Peanuts grow in and are Carcinogens. Peanuts for human consumption are usually tested, often this is not the case for birds. Well worth checking!
Pre-order you Cleaner Peanut Feeder
FF Talk - Disease Proliferation in Gardens
We talked about the different diseases that are known to transfer on and around bird feeders, like Trichomonosis, Salmonella, Mycoplasmosis, and Avian Flu. We also highlighted how conventional feeders help the disease to spread, asking some straightforward questions for poeople to consider when buying products for the garden:
Is the material easy to clean?
Will it retain germs?
Will it keep the food dry?
Would you let a pet use it?
It’s easy to assume that garden products are safe for us and the animals that use them, but we urge everyone to take a minute and think about responsible feeding.
Comparing with industry standard bird feeders
In the same vein as parts of our presentation, and with some sadness, we decided to offer comparisons to our visitors this year. It is the most effective way we can get our message across. It is even more sad that we use RSPB products for the purpose.
It is no secret that we have a “challenging” relationship with the RSPB, but we will start a new advertising drive this autumn, using the following slogan.
“THE EXTINCTION OF OUR GREENFINCHES AND CHAFFINCHES IS A CHOICE, NOT AN INEVITABILITY”
At GBF we had a window with a FF window feeder directly above an RSPB window feeder. FF denies the birds the opportunity to walk and defecate in the food it keep the food dry. The RSPB product clearly and obviously spreads disease. We left it to our visitors to make their own mind up.
The senior management at the RSPB have their heads firmly in the sand, we have had one reply from them in over two years of writing.
On a brighter note
On a brighter note, we had lots of visitors, return visitors and new contacts, some lovely chats and new opportunities.
It was great to see Alexia Claire again, an award winning illustrator that we met at the show last year. She produced the illustrations for one of our recent leaflets and we recommend visiting her website to see the wonderful work that she produces - https://www.alexiaclaire.com/
Competition Winners!
Each year at the show we offer the chance to win a feeder and our 3 winners have now been selected and will receive an email notification shortly!
Thanks to Andrew, Dave, Claire, Simon and Doreen for their support! Also thanks to the organisers of GBF who did a fantastic job in the most challenging of circumstances.
Now that the Fair is over for another year, our new products are nearly ready for sale, and the school holidays are over, we are back in the groove with regular newsletters, blog posts and announcements coming up so keep and eye out!
