BritBits bird food review – Ivel Valley

I think it might be a bit of an understatement to say that this winter has been a bit of a chilly one.

After a bit of respite from the cold last week the freezing weather has returned in style over the last few days.  While we’ve been wrapped up warm and cwtched up inside, this cold snap will have been really tough on all the wildlife.

We used to feed the birds in our garden regularly, especially after we were sent some amazing ready peck bird seed to review a few summers ago.  After a particularly windy day took out our bird feeder though we let things slip and, for the most part, stopped putting food out for them.

So I was so pleased when the lovely people at Ivel Valley got back in touch to ask if we would like to try some of their new BritBits bird food.  It was perfect timing as I was planning on getting some more food in to put out for the birds again, with the really cold weather sticking around.

The BritBits bird food that we were sent is different from the types of food we’ve had in the past.

We tend to have quite classic bird seed, or occasionally fat balls, to attract more birds to the garden.  These though are quinoa and suet bird pellets, and were designed to be a bit of a superfood for birds, giving them all the nutrition they need for growth and development.

What I really love about these pellets is that they’re really versatile.

We bought a mesh feeder to put ours in, but you don’t have to.  The pellets can also just be put on a bird table, or even just on the ground in your garden.  I’ve seen some lovely ideas for open topped bird feeders made from old teacups or even from wooden lolly sticks, and these BritBits pellets would be great for a feeder like that.

Each pellet is a pretty decent size which makes grabbing some to sprinkle around in the garden really easy. 

We also found that they go really nicely in our standard bird feeder as well as the mesh one that we bought.

I’m quite sad to admit that because we hadn’t been regularly putting food out for the birds they weren’t really visiting our garden that much.  And it did take a few days for the pellets to start disappearing from the hanging feeder.

I did put a few handfuls out on the decking that went quite quickly but it mainly seemed to be magpies eating it all which I didn’t really want!  After a few days though, and a bit of hovering around the kitchen window keeping an eye on the feeder I spotted more birds starting to appear and enjoy the BritBits.

It has been so lovely to see the birds starting to visit us again.

We’ve had blackbirds and some tits, although they’ve been too quick for me to have a good look I think it’s mainly been coal tits visiting our feeder.  I think we may also have had a wren or two.  I’m hoping that the word will spread around the bird community that our garden is open for business again and we’ll start to see more and more of them coming for a little something good to eat!

Have you been putting food out for the birds this winter?  What type of birds do you tend to find at your feeder? 

Disclaimer: We were sent a pack of Ivel Valley BritBits bird food for the purpose of this review, but all words and opinions are my own.

You can get BritBits and a whole range of other wonderful bird food directly from Ivel Valley – Ivelvalleybirdfood.co.uk