How can we keep your bird bath from turning black from the water?
March 29, 2010 by
Filed under Bird Baths
The areas where water runs down on our bird baths turns black and is very hard to clean. Is there something we can add into the water that will not harm birds?
varnish it
When cleaning, use straight bleach. I soak my concrete bird bath this way, then rinse it, then scrub it with dish soap and a brush. As long as you rinse it well, it will not make the birds sick. As far as adding something into the water, I have no idea.
Put clear plastic around your bird bath. It will stop the water even leaking in the first place. We did that at my place and it worked perfectly. (it didn’t scare the birds either) By the way I mean put the plastic in the bowl of the bird bath then put the water in, not the other way around.
Depending on who much water you are adding to the water, a good concentration would be to add a tablespoon of bleach to a gallon of water. This keeps the mold from growing in standing water, and it won’t hurt the birds at all. Plus it will keep Mosquitoes from laying their larvae in the standing water. Have to be careful these days with West Nile and Triple E where i live.
Good Luck!
Please! Do not use detergent and especially don’t use bleach. Both are harmful to the birds. Instead use white vinegar. It is 100% safe and kills 99.9% of the germs.
Unless you want to replace your bird bath with one that is easier to clean, you’ll need to clean it every day or every other day.
The link below will help.
Good luck
Silver2sea