Thank you for doing that homework. I just purchased 100 pounds of grass seeds and I thought it was all a waste of time because when I get up in the morning and open my window there’s like 1000 birds outside on my lawn .Thank you.
Right on point buddy. When I did my midnight KBG in my back yard I didn't rake it in or add topper or covered it I just threw it out there with some fertilizer and still had success I just watered everyday 4 short cycles and had 1 inch of grass in 14 days and I had a ton of seed showing and birds never bothered so when I saw this video I was like yes finally, cause Its annoying when people claim birds eat the grass seed. Great job on the video.
Seeded some patches on my lawn last weekend and spent the rest of the day chasing off pigeons. They just sat nearby waiting to come back. It was all gone within 2 days. That was rye/fescue seed.
@@kove I didn't see any other birds having a go but the standard British woodpigeon seems to love the stuff i put down! You could be right on seed size, maybe i should try a smaller one...
Well here in the UK, our birds must be different to you, I am 70 now and I can recall back when I was about 7 and then 15 my father laying a new lawn and watching quite some time birds 'flock' down to eat the seeds in had put in over the weekend. I in my life, a good five times seeded ground for lawn in different places in the UK and quite a few patches EVERYTIME birds would constantly fly down and eat the seed.
lol, I can see that being frustrating! I need to run this experiment with larger seed. The Bluegrass seed is much smaller than the usual fescue and rye types.
I think most folks mistake the seed as the attractant when really freshly disturbed ground with moisture is the draw since it hosts worms and insects and possibly grubs were stirred up, that's why birds look like they are eating seed when in fact they are foraging on loose ground going after other things.
If the birds are not eating my grass seeds what or who is? Every time I go outside my house there are 30 or more birds close to the house where I planted the grass seeds. I put grass seed down in the area where I needed it, and it stays bare. So maybe they eat it along with the worms? I don't know. Grass seeds is expensive like $36.00 plus tax for a small bag. Maybe your seeds have some kind of funguscide on it, and they probably wouldn't eat that.
People think they are eating the grass seed but they are actually eating the worms that are popping up because people water a lot more when they put grass seed down.
I do not care what kind of test you did, I had a dead area in my backyard for a month waiting for the right time to seed and there was not a single bird there, now that I have thrown down grass seed there are around 15 of them eating my seed even though I put a cover on it they are still chowing down for breakfast lunch and dinner. Again it was not a bird hangout until I threw down grass seed.
Exactly they certainly do eat the grass! I have just seeded the grass at the front garden and the back garden. At the front garden I have covered the seeds with a layer of topsoil while at the back (because it is much bigger area) I left the seeds only pressed down with the roller. No birds at the front garden, hundreds at the back. Worth to mention that the ground has been cultivated a few days before and there was only a few birds eating the warms. Now when they see the seeds they are inviting all their families to have a lunch together! Wired I know… totally different story when you waiting for the birds at your porch and totally different when you have the seeds on the ground a far away from your house.
@@Photo-Ninja Exactly. I had a similar issue. I used mulch on both front and back. The areas where the sprinkler or elements moved the mulch were devoured by the birds....completely bare now. The areas where the mulch is has 2" long blades already in 8 days. It depends on the bird I think. The only ones interested in this seed were little brown finches. All other birds couldn't care less. Next time I will use mulch and cover with a thin layer of straw.
@@kove I do man...yeah Cardinals are awesome. I’m a sucker for the Red Wing Blackbird. Finches are always cool to have around....a lot of lawn dudes will cringe at this but I love the squirrels and rabbits in my yard...
Bird seed is composed with millet grass seed. Commercially bought "grass seed" has more than just seed in it. Maybe birds just aren't fans of Kentucky blue grass.
Thanks Mike! I really love female cardinals colors, also cool the two in this video always seemed to come as couple. "Where are we eating today honey?" "That new place, The Railing." "oOo, sounds exotic!"
Thanks for the experiment. I always thought that's what they were doing until I saw a few of them came up with worm and grass minus the seed. Dinner and house building in one shot! 😄
I can guarantee you they do eat seeds depending on type of seeds. In Phoenix, Arizona here, everytime we overseed in winter with Rye grass, they are flocking all over it. Especially those nasty mind boggling doves/pigeons. By eating all our seeds, they kind of ruin the hard work 😭
My theory is they are mostly looking for bugs in the freshly disturbed soil. Definitely need to redo the experiment with different seed type, but KBG and with my birds they didn't eat it.
@@kove Hi, i'm in the UK. Have just spent an hour watching the bird table to see which birds, if any, liked our 'rye' grass seed. Of the birds that visited the table (sparrows, coal tits, robin redbreast, blackbirds, magpies, pigeons) and the grey squirrels, only the robin ate the rye grass seed and returned for more. The sparrows ate just a few seeds but weren't keen. Pigeons are usually blamed over here for eating the grass seed but on the bird table they didn't touch it all. So your theory could be correct :)
Koven Carlson, Back for another episodes of Myth Busters! LOL! Loved it! So true tho, why does everyone say it? IDK Peace and God's Love! Chad Upstate NY
Yeah, I loved making this one! I've wonder for years. There are some improvements to the test I want to do, but I think this generalizes it pretty well. lol, yeah the vol.limo strikes again!
It's a worthy experiment, but I think it depends on the species of bird. We have quail and yes, they absolutely do eat the seeds of grasses. An hour ago I shooed a family away from the stuff I laid down last night. I also think it would depend on the seed. I put down a ground cover mix that has grass seed in it, but it's also got clover and some other things. And some seeds are sold coated with assorted chemicals by the companies. Are the seeds organic or no? I'm sure some of that stuff tastes nasty and would be a deterrent. Basically, there have to be a ton of factors going into the question. But that could actually be a good marketing idea for these companies. "Birds won't eat our seeds because we coat with this harmless blah, blah, blah that won't hurt the birds, but tastes bad to them!!" You'd think somebody would've picked up on that by now.
@@kove Actually, no. This is advertised as a 'no till mix.' I did rake a tiny bit of the hardest soil just to break up some of the worst of the rock hard stuff, but other than that, I just cast it. We live in the high desert. About 150 years ago this area was pasture/grassland. All of that was stripped due to a combination of overgrazing and invasive plants from mostly Europe being brought in. So my husband and I are involved in a (very slow, agonizing) process to restore the soil. Five years ago, the annual monsoon rains would just wash over the land, removing what little top soil was left. Hurricane-force winds would carry off even more during the bone dry season. The soil is basically just short of sterile. Not one earthworm has been found on our 24 acres in the five years that we've lived here. After four years of ripping out invasive species and trucking in horse manure and mulch, this year the water is soaking IN to the dirt on a lot of the property we've been focusing on. Right now we're in the monsoon and I'm trying to get in just a some groundcover plants in to help some bald spots pull the water through and retain moisture through the winter. Some composted horse poop, sparsely cast seeds, and a tiny bit of mulch. (Once we get a few annual plants to take, their babies come back much stronger next year, so that saves us a ton of money.) As soon as the flood waters recede and we can get out of here, we're grabbing some neem oil to help protect the seeds from the birds and the ants. I should've waited until we had that stuff on hand, but I really wanted to catch this rain to water the seeds in. Probably more detail than you were betting on, but there's some clarity for the situation. We're dealing with rough and tumble desert birds, rodents, and insects. They can't afford to be picky. Now I know the quail are eating seeds, but there's another phenomena that'll make people think birds are eating their seeds when they're not. We've got a lot of bugs going after the seeds and birds like roadrunners are coming in after those bugs. So I don't think my bird issue is a terrible as it might appear, which is why I went ahead and cast the seeds early. I do agree with you that birds aren't as terrible with seeds as some think, but there are species that will eat them. I would like to see more experiments on this topic and also what coatings have been used to prevent the problem. You got me thinking and I did some googling. Turns out people used to use kerosene. I'm probably going to experiment with that at some point.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 all very good points, and thanks for the context as it really has me thinking of different ways to control this test better. You area sounds beautiful, I need to step up my landscaping next year.
@@kove Oh, it's dramatic and gorgeous. We're surrounded by mountains. We can see Tombstone from our back porch. In the end, we believe it'll be worth the fight. Next year we're going to be doing some contouring of the land to increase water retention even more than we have. Then we might actually be able to get some trees to take up here. Looking forward to more of your experiments.
Thank you for doing that homework. I just purchased 100 pounds of grass seeds and I thought it was all a waste of time because when I get up in the morning and open my window there’s like 1000 birds outside on my lawn .Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Right on point buddy. When I did my midnight KBG in my back yard I didn't rake it in or add topper or covered it I just threw it out there with some fertilizer and still had success I just watered everyday 4 short cycles and had 1 inch of grass in 14 days and I had a ton of seed showing and birds never bothered so when I saw this video I was like yes finally, cause Its annoying when people claim birds eat the grass seed. Great job on the video.
Exactly man! They are so itty bitty, And for my experience birds are pretty picky with the type of seeds they eat. Thanks!
@@kove what about other animals?
Seeded some patches on my lawn last weekend and spent the rest of the day chasing off pigeons. They just sat nearby waiting to come back. It was all gone within 2 days. That was rye/fescue seed.
Interesting, I really need to run this again using different type of seed. Especially the larger sized, like those.
@@kove I didn't see any other birds having a go but the standard British woodpigeon seems to love the stuff i put down! You could be right on seed size, maybe i should try a smaller one...
Does this also apply to morning doves? I recently seeded my lawn and these little bastards are having a feast where I did the seeding.
no doves around me
The world needs more of this
Thanks LG!
Well here in the UK, our birds must be different to you, I am 70 now and I can recall back when I was about 7 and then 15 my father laying a new lawn and watching quite some time birds 'flock' down to eat the seeds in had put in over the weekend. I in my life, a good five times seeded ground for lawn in different places in the UK and quite a few patches EVERYTIME birds would constantly fly down and eat the seed.
lol, I can see that being frustrating! I need to run this experiment with larger seed. The Bluegrass seed is much smaller than the usual fescue and rye types.
I think most folks mistake the seed as the attractant when really freshly disturbed ground with moisture is the draw since it hosts worms and insects and possibly grubs were stirred up, that's why birds look like they are eating seed when in fact they are foraging on loose ground going after other things.
Great experiment! Definitely unexpected result too!
Thanks man!
In addition to trying different grass seed like TTTF, you could try spreading some out on the ground to see if they recognize it like that.
Valid point Sean, that is a variable unaccounted for. 👌 I'll need to see the best way to incorporate that.
If the birds are not eating my grass seeds what or who is? Every time I go outside my house there are 30 or more birds close to the house where I planted the grass seeds. I put grass seed down in the area where I needed it, and it stays bare. So maybe they eat it along with the worms? I don't know. Grass seeds is expensive like $36.00 plus tax for a small bag. Maybe your seeds have some kind of funguscide on it, and they probably wouldn't eat that.
Good points Elise, just know they didn't want my seed at that particular time.
People think they are eating the grass seed but they are actually eating the worms that are popping up because people water a lot more when they put grass seed down.
Bingo🎯. Thanks for checking it out Jon.
Just about to type the same thing.
The variety of birds you have out there is pretty impressive.
@@ShortCutLawn Thanks Al! There's a couple owls back there as well, I'd love to get up close footage one, beautiful birds,
I do not care what kind of test you did, I had a dead area in my backyard for a month waiting for the right time to seed and there was not a single bird there, now that I have thrown down grass seed there are around 15 of them eating my seed even though I put a cover on it they are still chowing down for breakfast lunch and dinner. Again it was not a bird hangout until I threw down grass seed.
Yeah, there's some other variable that i didn't test, but I really don't think birds in my area were eating the KBG seed.
Birds absolutely eat grass seed. Different birds like different seeds. Some birds only like certain grass seed by the way.
A TON of variables, but for this seed, for the area birds didn't seem to like it. Good point though!
Exactly they certainly do eat the grass! I have just seeded the grass at the front garden and the back garden. At the front garden I have covered the seeds with a layer of topsoil while at the back (because it is much bigger area) I left the seeds only pressed down with the roller. No birds at the front garden, hundreds at the back. Worth to mention that the ground has been cultivated a few days before and there was only a few birds eating the warms. Now when they see the seeds they are inviting all their families to have a lunch together! Wired I know… totally different story when you waiting for the birds at your porch and totally different when you have the seeds on the ground a far away from your house.
@@Photo-Ninja Exactly. I had a similar issue. I used mulch on both front and back. The areas where the sprinkler or elements moved the mulch were devoured by the birds....completely bare now. The areas where the mulch is has 2" long blades already in 8 days. It depends on the bird I think. The only ones interested in this seed were little brown finches. All other birds couldn't care less. Next time I will use mulch and cover with a thin layer of straw.
i got pigeons will eat it. every time i seed i have to cover it or it will be gone
What type of seed?
However, I have seen a column of ants marching off with with my Mazama seed.. just for the first day or two until the moisture gets to it
Now I need to test that out, amazing! It sounds like the plot to Donald Duck short lol.
Absolutely love it buddy.
Glad you enjoyed it Mark! I'd imagine you have some beautiful animals on your property, have a favorite? I love the Cardinals, esp the females.
@@kove I do man...yeah Cardinals are awesome. I’m a sucker for the Red Wing Blackbird. Finches are always cool to have around....a lot of lawn dudes will cringe at this but I love the squirrels and rabbits in my yard...
Bird seed is composed with millet grass seed. Commercially bought "grass seed" has more than just seed in it. Maybe birds just aren't fans of Kentucky blue grass.
What the double hockey sticks is an adjective? Comparatively speaking, grass do not eat bird seed
LOL, perfect! That would be quite the painting wouldn't' it?
I would have guessed yes. Who knew? Magnificent test!
It was fun! Surprised my just how disinterested they were.
Yes. Some pretty birds. Great video
Thanks Mike! I really love female cardinals colors, also cool the two in this video always seemed to come as couple. "Where are we eating today honey?" "That new place, The Railing." "oOo, sounds exotic!"
@@kove oh good I’m glad I’m not the only one who likes the female birds. Yes the males stand out. But the females birds have so much more
Hmm yesterday I overseeded contractor mix and today there's a pigeon and quail family reunion. 🧐
Perhaps there a lot to do with seed size. My KBG are tiny.
@@kove ah ok, yes my seed was bigger. Pretty sure they ate it all lol
You gotta try TTTF next, for science! :)
Exactly! I even have some somewhere, can't believe I didn't think of it at the time!!
Yes , I seen them eating the seeds I put down
Thanks for the experiment.
I always thought that's what they were doing until I saw a few of them came up with worm and grass minus the seed.
Dinner and house building in one shot! 😄
Yep, it was on my mind since I first heard it back in 2017...
i guess Im kinda randomly asking but does anybody know of a good website to watch newly released movies online?
@Dillon Ryan flixportal :)
@Kyrie Derrick Thanks, I went there and it seems to work =) Appreciate it !!
@Dillon Ryan no problem :)
That's a nice variety of birds!
Yep, I still need to ID a few. There was a large blue bird and a small one. I think they were different types.
I can guarantee you they do eat seeds depending on type of seeds. In Phoenix, Arizona here, everytime we overseed in winter with Rye grass, they are flocking all over it. Especially those nasty mind boggling doves/pigeons. By eating all our seeds, they kind of ruin the hard work 😭
My theory is they are mostly looking for bugs in the freshly disturbed soil. Definitely need to redo the experiment with different seed type, but KBG and with my birds they didn't eat it.
@@kove Hi, i'm in the UK. Have just spent an hour watching the bird table to see which birds, if any, liked our 'rye' grass seed. Of the birds that visited the table (sparrows, coal tits, robin redbreast, blackbirds, magpies, pigeons) and the grey squirrels, only the robin ate the rye grass seed and returned for more. The sparrows ate just a few seeds but weren't keen. Pigeons are usually blamed over here for eating the grass seed but on the bird table they didn't touch it all. So your theory could be correct :)
Koven Carlson, Back for another episodes of Myth Busters! LOL! Loved it! So true tho, why does everyone say it? IDK Peace and God's Love! Chad Upstate NY
I wanted to go through every lawn renovation video I've seen and put a compilation of clips of all those who've said it. We know who you are! ;)
@@kove
Lol, most of them just copy each other,
I only follow a few now , the good ones,
Not many are worthy of my comments anymore
😆.
@@BrettSucks As Lenny from delray misfits would say: cookie cutters 😆
I just watched Sparrows eat Scotts RapidGrow. Not going to end up well.
interesting
What? How is that possible? Thanks for this test. At first I thought it might have been the shoe stink keeping them away 🤣
LOL!! Yeah I thought they'd pick at it at least a little...
Myth buster in action!! Woohoo
This one was a blast to make! I've wondered/been skeptical of it for years. I can finally sleep.
@@kove
It keeps the peat moss sellers & landzie going.
@@BrettSucks Never cut a step when I can make money on it! But really I think you're spot on with your other observation.
Great info
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for checking it out Brian.
They decided against it without even getting close. How interesting! Oh, and vol.limo.
Yeah, I loved making this one! I've wonder for years. There are some improvements to the test I want to do, but I think this generalizes it pretty well. lol, yeah the vol.limo strikes again!
@@kove You'll have to come up with another reason that your new grass never grows. 😁
.
@@TommyTester 😆
Yes
I need further testing, but doesn't appear so. Thanks for checking it out Grace!
Pigeons in the city love my overseeding projects :D
lol. What seed type?
It's a worthy experiment, but I think it depends on the species of bird. We have quail and yes, they absolutely do eat the seeds of grasses. An hour ago I shooed a family away from the stuff I laid down last night.
I also think it would depend on the seed. I put down a ground cover mix that has grass seed in it, but it's also got clover and some other things. And some seeds are sold coated with assorted chemicals by the companies. Are the seeds organic or no? I'm sure some of that stuff tastes nasty and would be a deterrent.
Basically, there have to be a ton of factors going into the question. But that could actually be a good marketing idea for these companies. "Birds won't eat our seeds because we coat with this harmless blah, blah, blah that won't hurt the birds, but tastes bad to them!!" You'd think somebody would've picked up on that by now.
Was the soil tilled up and water? My thought is they may have been more interested in insects and worms at the surface. Your thoughts?
@@kove Actually, no. This is advertised as a 'no till mix.' I did rake a tiny bit of the hardest soil just to break up some of the worst of the rock hard stuff, but other than that, I just cast it.
We live in the high desert. About 150 years ago this area was pasture/grassland. All of that was stripped due to a combination of overgrazing and invasive plants from mostly Europe being brought in. So my husband and I are involved in a (very slow, agonizing) process to restore the soil. Five years ago, the annual monsoon rains would just wash over the land, removing what little top soil was left. Hurricane-force winds would carry off even more during the bone dry season. The soil is basically just short of sterile. Not one earthworm has been found on our 24 acres in the five years that we've lived here.
After four years of ripping out invasive species and trucking in horse manure and mulch, this year the water is soaking IN to the dirt on a lot of the property we've been focusing on. Right now we're in the monsoon and I'm trying to get in just a some groundcover plants in to help some bald spots pull the water through and retain moisture through the winter. Some composted horse poop, sparsely cast seeds, and a tiny bit of mulch. (Once we get a few annual plants to take, their babies come back much stronger next year, so that saves us a ton of money.)
As soon as the flood waters recede and we can get out of here, we're grabbing some neem oil to help protect the seeds from the birds and the ants. I should've waited until we had that stuff on hand, but I really wanted to catch this rain to water the seeds in.
Probably more detail than you were betting on, but there's some clarity for the situation. We're dealing with rough and tumble desert birds, rodents, and insects. They can't afford to be picky.
Now I know the quail are eating seeds, but there's another phenomena that'll make people think birds are eating their seeds when they're not. We've got a lot of bugs going after the seeds and birds like roadrunners are coming in after those bugs. So I don't think my bird issue is a terrible as it might appear, which is why I went ahead and cast the seeds early. I do agree with you that birds aren't as terrible with seeds as some think, but there are species that will eat them.
I would like to see more experiments on this topic and also what coatings have been used to prevent the problem. You got me thinking and I did some googling. Turns out people used to use kerosene. I'm probably going to experiment with that at some point.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 all very good points, and thanks for the context as it really has me thinking of different ways to control this test better.
You area sounds beautiful, I need to step up my landscaping next year.
@@kove Oh, it's dramatic and gorgeous. We're surrounded by mountains. We can see Tombstone from our back porch.
In the end, we believe it'll be worth the fight. Next year we're going to be doing some contouring of the land to increase water retention even more than we have. Then we might actually be able to get some trees to take up here.
Looking forward to more of your experiments.
Perhaps the birds didn't like what the grass seed was treated with. Animals instinctively know.
I wasn't aware this seed was treated with anything. (coatings etc). But good point
They are definitely eating my ducking grass seed
how can you tell?
Science Fair!
Weird Science!
They probably would have eaten the Sissy Rye Grass. They know not to mess with the KBG lol :)
Rhizomes in the belly, would NEVER happen with Rye grass.
@@kove hahahaha
Yes - dumping
count it!
well, if these don't eat it who does??? cause it certainly diappears!
seed gnomes
Do grass eat bird seeds? 😂😂😂
damn, we need to find out!
Yes
Thanks for watching Zach!