I just talked with the manufacturer of Garden Treasure bird seed distributed by Lowes.
The highlights for me were: Pretty much all Thistle feed comes from Myanmar, Ethiopia, or India. There is a trade embargo against Myanmar now so current seed comes from Ethiopia or India. Every companies feed that comes into the US goes through one of two cleaning plants, one on each coast. I’m not too clear on the process these plants perform but I know they heat the seed and attempt to remove chaff. >From there, these two plants sell to seed manufacturers or in this case, >importers. I was told the problem I am most likely having is mold due to the seed’s moisture and 1) plastic packaging, and 2) temperature cycling. We are in the process of trying to track down the date code of the bad seed and have it removed from the shelves. He was Very knowledgeable and Very kind. One other interesting tidbit I gleaned from the conversation, although Milo is a less-expensive filler seed up north here, it is a preferred seed in Arizona where many of the birds are ground feeders. Glenn Endicott, NY www.wilsonswarbler.com -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
