Classic BrandsStokes Select Snacks 'N Treats Red Metal 1 Lb. Capacity Tube Bird Feeder - 1 Each

Okay - I'm a serious birder ... and I feed birds throughout most of the year. But my busiest time of year is now --- winter. I have grown so tired of buying feeders for bluebirds, only to find they just don't work all that well. For that reason, I am always skeptical about any feeder that claims to work for bluebirds. I'm always having to make my own adaptions, and this feeder is no exception. (I'm not sure why manufacturers have such trouble with this.) Anyway ... we have in excess of 40 bluebirds that rely on our feeders to maintain their body fat enough to endure our cold temperatures and storms. I wish they would all migrate - but some don't. They don't especially like reliance on feeders, but when the snow flies and they can't find enough to eat - they come to call. As soon as we have a thaw, they're off in search of berries and such --- and good for them. This is what inspires me to try to help them out. So --- I feed a mixture of live mealworms - and supplement with waxworms and dried mealworms. (Thank goodness I can supplement, because I otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.)Now - this is not a criticism of Amazon, but it IS a criticism of the manufacturer. If they knew so much about birds that eat dried mealworms, they would know that the little holes they stamp doesn't quite suffice for winter feeding. Yes - for maybe 1-2 birds sampling. Chickadees in particular, feed this way from feeders. But for serious eating, it doesn't fill the need. Besides that - it doesn't seem to be the behavior pattern for a bluebird to look up and pull dried worms out of the holes. They look down for worms in the platform. Take note: I'm not saying they never do ... its just not their natural behavior. Finally - a bluebird in winter is high on the menu for hawks, and they want to eat fast and furious ... not tediously pick dried worms from the small holes.I have another feeder that I fill with dried worms that works pretty good (only because the holes are large enough) - but the problem with dried worms, is that they are very light and easily get 'log-jammed' up inside to where the birds can't reach. Whatever feeder they are in needs to have nice, large open holes for the worms to easily roll out, giving the birds easy access. So even with the feeder I have used for 3 years now (see first picture), needs to be shaken every so often to dislodge the jam. Beyond that - it is made of plastic, and I know one of these days I'm going to break it. Then I'm toast ...I wondered about the 'access' problem with the Stokes feeder before purchasing - and I tried it out for about 3 days. My birds will nearly empty the old feeder in a day, with very little spill on the ground. With the Stokes feeder, they willingly came to it within 1/2 hour (see picture), but after 3 days, the worms had gone down only about 3 inches. This tells me they tried - but no cigar. THEREFORE - we made some adaptions...There used to be a dried worm feeder on the market years ago very similar to the adapted version we created (see pic) out the the Stokes feeder. But - for some reason, that other model from years ago was discontinued. I'm at a loss as to why. If you buy this feeder (for DRIED MEALWORMS - I wouldn't adapt it for seed with the added larger holes), and you are disappointed - you could try to adapt it. We used tin snips to cut the holes, softened the edges with a dremel tool - and insulation from copper wiring for line the edge. Took about 20 minutes. A manufacturer should easily and affordably be able to make this adaption ...I really hope they consider it for winter bluebird feeders. We could use the break ...