WANTED: Birdseed Wholesaler

[Hourman]

When I was a kid (1970's), my 4-H club bought birdseed, wholesale, and sold it, retail, as a fundraiser. Once a month we took a small display table to the local Audobon Association meeting and did very well. My troop would like to try this now, but we have not been able to find a source of wholesale birdseed. Can anyone point us in the right direction? We are located in NJ, if that makes any difference. Private messages are welcome.

[madkins007]

Your local 'feed and grain' store will carry huge bags of the stuff at dirt cheap prices- near enough to wholesale for most purposes.

 

 

 

If I may offe a few ideas on bird feed...

 

1. Contact some local experts with no commercial interest in the situation about the right birdseeds for your area. What attracts what birds, what germinates or not if it falls to the ground? What is the best way to offer the various seeds (tube feeder, pan feeder, ground scatter, etc.) Audobon, local nature center, county extension service...

 

2. Find or make a little give-a-way booklet on the best way to use any of the seeds you offer or feeding in general.

 

3. ANYONE can get cheapo 'multipurpose' seed for dirt cheap. Offer better seeds with more specific purposes- cardinal mix, songbird mix, etc.

 

4. Most cheap mixes are full of various filler seeds that almost nothing eats, but fills the bag to make it look like a better value. A simple sign explaining this should boost sales.

 

5. When we did this several years ago (not through Scouts), we had the best luck with gallon-sized Zip-Lock bags of specialty mixes (weighed out to so many pounds of seed- not overfilled), and gallon milk jugs of our 'general' mix. Decent looking computer-generated labels identified the contents.

 

6. We boosted sales also by offering some hand-made feeders on the side. Those were sold more as a 'garage sale' format with the individuals earning 75% of the sale price.