Growing the canary seed

[Clairecanary15]

I have grown some canary seed that I feed my canaries ..it is all sprouting nicely. I was just wondering if it is safe to give a pot of the grown canary seed to the canaries?

[isobea]

I grow canary grass in my backyard (for the seed heads). I only harvest the seed heads when they are at least half dry. Usually they start turning from green to whitish from the top down. I cut them off and clip them to a small branch in my aviary. My birds love these half-ripe seeds.
Iso

[Clairecanary15]

Wow what a brilliant idea

I will give it a try. I will have to grow some more for hanging up. The seedlings are in nice pots at the moment for the canaries to potter around in when the plants are more established,

Thankyou Iso

Claire

[isobea]

Clairecanary15 - Hi Claire, every spring I also sprinkle seed mixes in my flowerbeds. This way I get different kinds of millet growing which the birds love in the half-ripe state. Another one to try is flax seed. Bonus: beautiful sky-blue flowers on skinny stems that move in the breeze! I harvest the seed capsules before they dry up and turn brown (a few at a time). I do have to break open these capsules, though, because they are like hard little balls. Especially my European goldfinches love those seeds.
I don't know if you can buy perilla seed where you live. It's available in Germany but not in the US. I've tried growing that but it won't sprout (must be treated with heat or something to keep it from sprouting). It's a good oily seed that is less fatty than niger or flax seed.
Good luck. I'm sure your birds will enjoy whatever you can grow for them. Also, chickweed and dandelions (again the half-ripe seed heads) should be growing everywhere in your climate right now.
Iso

[Clairecanary15]

Thankyou Iso

Im gonna be buying flaxseed for certain. .I love a flowery garden. I will also sprinkle the millet seed too in my garden...again another brilliant idea. Dandelions are popping up everywhere at the moment. I was going to get some chickweed seed too. Its a good idea drying out the dandelion heads. I will look into the perilla seed too..Ive not heard of it...

Claire

[isobea]

Claire, you should not have to buy chickweed seeds. Chickweed is really considered a weed in the true sense of the word all over northern Europe. We used to try to eradicate it from our flowerbeds (before I got into birds). Tiny white flowers. Look it up if you are not sure so you don't get it mixed up with something else that's potentially poisonous. A friend (here in California) picked some of what he thought was chickweed for his gouldians. The leaves were almost identical but the flowers were orange not white. He lost all of his birds.
As for the dandelion seed heads: you don't want to pick and then dry them. You want to pick only the seed heads which already have the white fluff visible but haven't opened yet. Cut the white fluff off with scissors before you give them to your birds. Otherwise they will go everywhere. The birds love the fresh (!) seed heads. If there is an abundance available, I have heard that you can freeze them in a plastic bag. I've never tried that because there are hardly any dandelion plants around here.
Iso

[Clairecanary15]

Thanks Iso

Its a good idea to find the chickweed - I like gardening so I just need to have a look - but I will look it up so I dont have a disaster like your friend. I bet he was absolutely gutted - very sad to hear.

I have too many dandelions in the garden...I will keep a close eye on them and nip them off at the right time. I will have to try and freeze them for use over the winter months. I will let you know how I get on...

Thankyou again Iso

Claire