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Welcome to The Birdhouse Banter — brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse.
Join host Bryn Griffiths and co-founders Ian Sprague and Janine Couture as we talk birds! Our team brings over 100 years of combined experience and a whole lot of passion for our feathered friends — whether they're soaring wild or perched right at home with you.
We are Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. From quality products and expert advice to supporting bird rescue right here in our community — Meika's Birdhouse has you covered.
Welcome to Birdhouse Banter brought to you by Meika's Birdhouse, Alberta's trusted destination for bird lovers. Hey everybody, I'm Bryn Griffiths and I love birds. I I don't really know enough about them, though. I gotta be honest about that. And that's why we are here.
Bryn:We're here to learn more because they're telling us everything we need to know, and, we're looking very much forward to this. This is our our podcast number one with the cofounders of Meika's Birdhouse, Ian Sprague and Janine Couture. Guys, how are you? Is everything okay?
Ian:Everything's going good.
Bryn:Who's, who's talking to us?
Ian:Oh, that's Polo. Polo the rooster. Yep. He's just making sure all the girls are where they're supposed to be.
Bryn:Did he get he must have got the queue. Yeah. Because that's unbelievable how we did that. Let's start things off with what we're gonna be doing here. Yeah.
Bryn:Three different segments we're gonna be doing on every podcast. Very excited about it. One's called the chirp. That's gonna be the hot bird topics of the moment. Ian's gonna join us, and we'll talk about that.
Bryn:Also, we're gonna talk about the safe house. Janine will be joining us on every episode to tell us what's new at Meika's safe house, and it's truly an an amazing place. I remember the first time I walked in there. I was blown away,
Ian:you guys.
Bryn:It was just you know, there's happy stories, and there's tough stories in that place, and we're gonna find out all sorts of different stories throughout our podcast as we move along with this. And then we're gonna wrap up with something we're gonna call the bird's eye view. It's basically, you know, we're gonna talk about the exciting visitors that will come to your bird feeder. Maybe you'll see pass over your house, that type of thing. How do you identify with them?
Bryn:Who's on a migration of this particular time? There's all sorts of things that we'll be talking about. But right now, let's get ready for the chirp.
Ian:Alright. Mhmm.
Bryn:Okay. So I gotta ask you right off the top. Tell us about this place. Ian, we'll go with you first. Okay.
Bryn:What, what made you think of, of coming up with a a location like this that everybody can come to?
Ian:Well I think probably for me the very first thing with self preservation was what was going through my mind. We had had parrots in our house. I was always big on the outside birds I've always enjoyed that kind of stuff. But we had parrots in our house. We had no, real outlets.
Ian:So there was no there was no we couldn't get what we wanted by going to a million different pet stores all throughout the city.
Janine:Yeah. They didn't cater to big birds all.
Ian:They didn't cater to well, to the stuff that we wanted. Right. Right? So, you know, Janine was gonna drive me absolutely mental. You know?
Bryn:Now, Janine, you know this is new. Right? You can't just jump in any anytime you wanna jump in
Janine:here, you
Bryn:just jump right in.
Ian:But she she knows she knows. I'm I'm I'm not lying. K? So yeah. So it was like, oh, we we gotta get something for this bird.
Ian:Well
Janine:We were looking for a rope perch.
Ian:A rope perch is what started it all.
Janine:Yeah. And we went to, like, 16 different stores and no rope purchase. So I'm like, well, that's it. We gotta open a store.
Bryn:Yeah. Now now I I turn around here and you guys got rope purchase everywhere here.
Janine:This is Yep.
Bryn:This is a is that the first thing you purchased?
Janine:It's one of them.
Ian:One of the very first things. Absolutely. And it was yeah. And and and I think if I remember the story in my mind anyhow, you know, I was in the kitchen doing something. The kids were running around doing stuff.
Ian:Janine's wanting stuff done with the birds, and and, she was going on about this rope perch, and I was like, why don't you just open a store? And I was I I think I was trying to be funny. You know? I don't think I I I think it was more sarcasm than anything else, and next thing you know, here we are.
Bryn:Yep. Yeah. So, Janine, you go from looking for a rope perch to this.
Ian:Yep.
Bryn:So how do you start do do you worry about the design first, or do you just say we gotta find a space, then we can fill it?
Janine:We actually tried to do it out of our house at first, and a lot of the suppliers wouldn't deal with us unless we were a brick and mortar store.
Bryn:Okay.
Janine:So that's how this started. And we actually are a lot smaller than this than we are now. When we first opened, we were just, like, half this bay. So, yeah, when we expanded very quickly. So
Bryn:how did it's one thing to open a store. It's another thing to have customers come and find you. So, Ian, how did people find you?
Ian:You know, at the
Janine:We put a lot of ads
Ian:on YouTube. Yeah. We did a lot of stuff with the, you know, the local newspaper here in Sherwood Park. You know, we did a lot of begging and and and all that kind of stuff.
Janine:Yeah. I remember our first thing when we first opened Yeah. We printed off, like, 200 of our own sheets saying, hey. We're in your neighborhood. Come in if you'd like to feed the birds.
Janine:You know? And I made the kids go around our neighborhood and deposit these little things in, in their mailboxes. So Yeah. Our kids And then we got all of our neighbors. Yeah.
Janine:We got all our neighbors coming, and then it just kinda grew from there.
Bryn:You surprised at how fast or was it slow? It felt
Janine:slow. Right.
Ian:Yeah. It all depends on the day. I remember Yeah. Sitting in here because I was still working at the time. I, you know, I still had a real job.
Ian:And and and Janine was manning the the store basically all week.
Janine:Four year old
Ian:son. With with the four year old. Kid. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:Yeah.
Janine:Yeah. He would have naps on the floor.
Ian:Guy's sleeping on the floor and, you know, you know, watching watching SpongeBob on his little tablet or whatever. Yeah. And and I'd come in on the weekends to to you know, so she could have a break. And, I remember, like, sitting here going, what the heck? Crickets.
Ian:How how are we gonna pull this off? Like,
Bryn:we Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. We gotta pay rent on this place, you know. Yep. And, and I thought, uh-oh, you know. But, know, slowly but surely, you know, somebody would come in.
Ian:Oh, look. Oh, I've never seen this before. And and then it would just grow and grow and grow. But, yeah, I remember the first time I sold, you know, the the big joke at the end of the day was like, you know, how much how much how much do we sell today? And they'd be like, well, you know, I I
Janine:you know? $70?
Ian:Yeah. Something like that. You know? You know? We only have to do this, you know, 500 more times, and we're gonna be okay.
Ian:Yeah. But, yeah. And it was it was it was a lot of lot of worry at first, but, yeah, it went through.
Bryn:Well, you guys have to convince yourself it's gonna work, but then you also have to convince banks and financial institutions to to put some weight behind you to make it turn into a wonderful place like this. That that could not have been easy.
Janine:Well, luckily, he was working at the time too. So we did have, a little bit of a of a cushion there at first. Plan? Yeah. Until a couple years later, you did get laid off.
Janine:But, no. It was it was good at first. And then by the time you did get laid off, we actually had We
Ian:had some traction. The big joke, remember when we first, and I mean, it was brand new. I don't even know if we had the, might have still been working out of the house Mhmm. At that point. And I remember Janine coming to me and go, you know what?
Ian:This is let's just quit. Let's just cut you know, we you know, this is this
Janine:is Yeah.
Ian:This is this is looking crazy.
Janine:I got oh, it's, like, costing us so much.
Ian:I remember turning around and looking at her. It's like, I've already put a $150
Janine:into this. Yeah.
Ian:We're doing turning back now.
Janine:Yeah.
Ian:You know? And, you know,
Janine:Yeah. We made our first $500 order, and it was like Yeah. No. There's no turning back. You gotta do this.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. There's no stopping now. We gotta go.
Bryn:Yeah. So so you
Janine:you He never let us quit.
Bryn:Yeah. Well, and you know what? Everybody says that first year is the hardest. Is that true?
Janine:It's the first five years.
Bryn:First five years?
Janine:Yep. I don't know. Yeah. Wow. I still find it hard, though.
Janine:Like, I still find it hard.
Bryn:So how long have you been here? How many years?
Ian:Fifteen years this Fifteen years here.
Bryn:Yeah. Okay. But the so you
Janine:But the rescue started before that.
Bryn:Okay. Well, we're gonna be talking about, the rescue and the safe house coming up on our next segment, but but I'm I'm really fascinated by how people get started doing what they do. You mentioned the rope purchase, and was that the first purchase by anybody?
Janine:Well
Bryn:Do you remember do you remember the first purchase?
Janine:I remember.
Ian:She did it. I She made the she made the first order and the first purchase.
Janine:Yeah. Yeah. This is why. Did the soap nuts, the natural cleaner.
Ian:So yeah. This is this is true. I forgot I forgot about soap nuts.
Janine:Yep. So on This is why we weren't allowed to quit.
Ian:Yeah. This is this is yeah. Alright. I'm with you. Yeah.
Ian:So there used you guys have heard of Dragons Dan and Oh, sure. CBC and all that. So on on that show,
Janine:they had this this Amazing company natural natural cleaners.
Ian:Yeah. From from a guy that was in Saskatchewan and and it was soap nuts. K. And and, basically, it's the it's the dried skin of a fruit, but that that they add water, and then it works like soap.
Janine:Yeah. You can do your laundry. You can clean your bird cages. You can wash your floors, and it was all
Bryn:natural. Sounds great.
Janine:It was great. It was a great product. It still is.
Ian:It still is a good product. Yeah. You know? It it it it there's nothing wrong with it. And and I'm just like, well, it's gonna be safe for the birds.
Ian:Mhmm. So that's important. Yeah. You know, we don't yeah. Because we don't wanna be selling anything then all of sudden find out that, oh, yeah.
Ian:It's toxic. Yeah. But yeah. So it it was it was kind of what what I'm just really excited about this product and we had it for quite a while. Turns out it didn't really work well in in our store.
Ian:But, yeah. No. It's it's a I still think it's good product. But
Janine:The product that made us stay.
Ian:Yeah. Let's go back it out because we had more soap nuts than we ever
Bryn:So so did you overbuy? Did did you over purchase? Is that why you had to kinda stick it out?
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Bryn:Yep. Absolutely. Guy from Saskatchewan must have loved you.
Ian:Yep. Yep. For a little while. Yep.
Bryn:Okay. So then you have your first customer, actual customer. Janine, please don't take that the wrong way.
Ian:But Yeah.
Bryn:No. Actual customer comes in Yeah. And then it's all word-of-mouth, or was it all through what you did with radio and television and newspaper advertising, that kind
Ian:of thing? It's just newspaper advertising at that point. I don't even know if there was newspaper advertising at
Janine:that point. That not that point. As long as you
Ian:can It was all my kids delivering, you know, these little homemade flyers. Thank god we had
Janine:It was kind of pieces. Our first customer, it was so cute because we were we weren't even open yet, and we would have, like, okay. Two weeks till the grand opening, and here we are like, you know, getting the shelves ready and, you know, organizing certain things. Okay. Eight days or yeah.
Janine:Eight days until we're opening. And then, like, we'd post these on our mini Facebook page with 50 people on it and on Kijiji. And we were, like, three days before opening, and this little woman comes in. She's like, are you are you open? Yeah.
Janine:I'm like, well, no. We got boxes of stuff everywhere. Like, it's Yeah. Not and she's like surfing through these boxes. I wanna buy this and I'm gonna buy that.
Janine:Yeah. So, yeah, like, she came in a couple days before the store even opened. So that was cute.
Ian:Yeah. It was like a good omen.
Janine:Yeah. It was a good omen.
Bryn:And how so the I the all the rope purchase you have here, I I I just I'm blown away by everything. But so to go from that to this over 15 years, is it, I know it's a lot of hard work, but it is are you still you come in when it's really quiet and you just go, I can't believe we did all of this when we could have easily packed it in after the first month.
Janine:Oh, yeah. Oh. Yeah. Every day. Yeah.
Janine:I mean, every day, I'm grateful that we have this. Yeah. You know? It's I it's something that I've always wanted to do. I took school for this and yeah.
Janine:So it's definitely something that is good. It's it's like our retirement plan, I guess.
Bryn:Ian, I gotta ask you too because we are not alone here. Like, we like, there I have to look down. It's one of the very few stores where I have to watch down by my feet. You've we've got are these your security guards? Like, what what are Security chickens.
Bryn:What what is this?
Ian:That's that's the janitor team. Yeah. So there's a a bunch of little chickens running around here, mostly silkies. There's also a Brahma, rooster, which
Bryn:Which we've heard.
Ian:We've heard him already. Yeah. And the newest additions, there's two little oh, what kind
Janine:of I don't know. They're, like, not Rhode Island.
Bryn:Part of your family.
Ian:So Some more more little chick I can't remember what what what breed of chicken they are offhand, but, don't come to me. They're not coachings. They're
Bryn:Well, I know one thing one thing is they're very clean. They clean up after themselves because of what is that?
Janine:They wear diapers.
Ian:Oh, they're diapers. Is that
Bryn:what it is? Yeah. Yeah. You use the word diapers for birds?
Ian:Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a back saver.
Bryn:Here's why this is gonna work because I love birds. I've got a bird feeder in the backyard, but I really don't know what I'm doing. And so this for me is gonna be is gonna be a fun, fun podcast because I can come in here and ask you guys all the time. Hey. I have this.
Bryn:I got that. Why isn't this working? Why is that working? I just think that there's so many things. You know, with the the store here, I know you've got an expansion going on here Mhmm.
Bryn:Which we're gonna talk about on the next segment, and we're really excited. I'm excited for you guys. I think it's gonna be fun, fun stuff, but just just have people walk in. You've gotta have you you don't succeed without having people come in repeat customers time and time again. Right?
Ian:Oh, absolutely. And we learn a lot off of those guys. You know We're so grateful for them. Yeah. They're they're they're some of our our our biggest sources of information.
Ian:Because, like I said, I'm an avid bird watcher, but I spend probably 75% of my time
Bryn:In here.
Ian:Yeah. Can't see a lot of birds flying around from in here. So I have a lot of people coming in saying, hey. You know, I you know, the red bulls are just going nuts. Are?
Ian:Oh, yeah. Are they? You know, great. Yeah. Mhmm.
Ian:You know, you know, or or or they'll show me pictures, you know, look. You know? And it's like, well, that's you know, they wanna know what kind of bird it is. And if I don't know, we get the little field guide out and we figure it out. But a lot of times, it it it's them them telling me what's happening out there, what's going on, you know, what they works at their house, what may didn't work at their house, what but but it could work at somebody else's.
Ian:So it's all really good.
Bryn:So, just before we break away and then we start to talk about the safe house Yeah. Man, oh, man. How much bigger can you get?
Janine:Oh, a whole another store bigger.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, if
Bryn:we Could you ever imagine that?
Ian:Yeah. Actually, I had a dream, my friend. I had a dream.
Bryn:Okay. Honestly.
Ian:I was because we were doing something like this, and then I was talking about conservation, species conservation, and all this other kind of stuff. We're very big on conservation when it comes to parrots and some of our native birds here in Alberta. But I started thinking, what about all the other animals? Right? So, you know, maybe we can slowly evolve.
Ian:I'm not saying we're gonna do this fast, but I think slowly evolve. And maybe we can start looking at conservation project, projects at, you know, for, you know, foxes and and and and Richardson's ground squirrels. Wow. Know, things like that. So, you know, that's something that that we we might be able to evolve into.
Bryn:Well, Janine, right at the March, we had the parrot show here. And you've done it before, but was this one even bigger and better than the last one?
Janine:This is the biggest one, that we've done. So it it actually was really amazing. We had a really good turnout. We had some really unique vendors, some awesome birds that you don't see everywhere, and, yeah, it was a really good show.
Bryn:Well, you guys just relax. Ian, you can sit back and really relax because when we come back, Janine's gonna tell us about the safe house, which is an amazing place, and we'll get to that coming right up here on the Birdhouse Banter.
Janine:Mhmm.
Bryn:Time to check-in with Janine and find out what's happening at Meika's safe house. Over the door, there's a bit of a cover. And when you pull back the cover, was pretty quiet until I stepped in, and then it was like a symphony orchestra. Like, is that the best way for that's that's the way I view it. I don't know how that's how you view it or not, but it's an amazing place.
Janine:Yeah. The birds if they don't recognize you, they definitely give us the high alert for sure. So somebody's new in here. Don't recognize that face.
Bryn:How many birds? Do you have a lot of birds in there?
Janine:We do. So for the safe house right now, today, this specific day, we have about a 102 birds in there at the shelter looking for homes. They can go anywhere from 60 to a 150 depending who and what and how many.
Bryn:The plan right from the get go that you want to try something like this, or did you just stumble on this?
Janine:It was interesting because we did bird sitting first out of our home, and we noticed that not everybody would pick up their birds after a while. Really? They just kind of abandoned them. So realizing that there was a need for people to bring birds when they can't look after them, we opened up a shelter and started doing that. So that was a lot of growing, a lot of learning for that.
Janine:And, yeah, here we are today, a registered charitable organization that accepts birds and and adopts them out to good homes.
Bryn:Was that a little disappointing when people don't pick up their birds? Because I like to think if you're gonna take on anything as a pet, that the responsibility is on you Mhmm. As an owner.
Janine:Yeah. It is disappointing, and it's hard on the birds, being transferred from home to home. So, yes, it is.
Bryn:Okay. So do you remember the first one that came in the door?
Janine:Yes. A little conure named Bitty.
Bryn:Old Bitty?
Janine:Yeah. Little Bitty.
Bryn:Okay. So what kind of bird?
Janine:It was a cognair.
Bryn:Okay. And that is, I'm gonna have to look this up. This is the part of the fun part for me of this.
Janine:Yeah. So It's a little it's a little green parrot, you know, little guy. But Conyers are surrendered a lot because of their nippiness. They have a they have a tendency to be nippy if you're not reading their body language properly and you're not listening to them. So yeah.
Bryn:Now when we were sitting in your office in the safe house Mhmm. Two of the most beautiful parrots I've ever seen. There might have been a third one there, but might have been very well, disguised. But, parrot's a big thing?
Janine:Yes.
Bryn:Why is that? You you brought up a point to me, and that was the fact their longevity is unbelievable.
Janine:Yeah. So all the birds we have here except the passerines are parrots. So even budgies are considered parrots. Cockatiel's are parrots. Macaws are parrots.
Janine:So yes. And there there's definitely appeal. People really like their plumage. They're colorful. They talk.
Janine:You know? But, it's that's not the reason why you should be getting a bird. You you wanna get a bird because they are companion animals, and you they you gotta treat them like a person. You know, you can't force them to do things they don't wanna do. You have to listen to what they say, and you have to give them a reason to wanna be with you.
Janine:You know? You can't just say, step up, and every time you put your hand out, you have to step up. No. You gotta give them a reason to wanna be with you. And people don't understand that.
Janine:And, it creates parrots. It it creates fear. It creates bad behaviors, and people can't handle that.
Ian:Yeah. Because they're they're companions now.
Bryn:Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And and the other one too that you talked about was the fact that in a lot of cases, parrots live for how long?
Bryn:Like, quite a while, if you pick up a parrot in your in your fifties
Janine:Yeah.
Bryn:There's a pretty good chance that parrot is gonna outlast you.
Janine:That's right. So and we recommend, we don't recommend older folks to get a young bird. You know, like there's plenty of older birds in the shelter that are just as deserving and just as good as young baby birds, deserving of homes. So, yeah, we would recommend an older bird for an older person so that they don't outlive you kinda thing.
Bryn:Now how how comfortable do they get in here? Because there's a lot of different other birds there. Is it home for now, or is it home right now and maybe even beyond? Like, how how tough is it to find the right home for a bird?
Janine:It's hard. It's very hard, because people have interesting expectations of what a bird should and do should be and do. Right. So we do have like a process, you know, like what do you expect of this bird? Okay.
Janine:This bird's not gonna do that kind of thing. But yeah. No. The birds it and it all depends on on the bird too. Some of them are really high stress because they've lived a sheltered life.
Janine:Their owners have never taken them out anywhere. Yeah. And some of them are just comfortable to hang out with anybody. So it they're all different. They all have different personalities.
Bryn:The other thing too, people are always looking for the lowest maintenance thing. Right? Anything. Cars, whatever, homes. But birds birds are a high maintenance thing.
Janine:I would say, do not if you want a low maintenance pet, don't get a bird. Get a hamster. Get a fish. Do not get a bird. They are very high maintenance, even the budgies.
Bryn:Do you do you have favorites? Because there's a lot in here.
Janine:I do have favorite species. Yes.
Bryn:Okay.
Janine:I love African grays. That's what the store is named after, my my African gray. And my next favorite would be the Alexandrine. So
Bryn:So so we're gonna tell a lot of stories about different birds, and there's success stories, and there's ones that I'm guessing are not so successful. And it's important to hear both sides because, you know, you just don't want somebody to come in here and say, I I just this is what I wanna do, and you must vet people pretty carefully. Right?
Janine:Yeah. Yeah. So, like, we do have a a process. So they do have to come in and meet the bird in person. If that goes well and the bird and them, they have a connection, then fill out the application.
Janine:We go through the application, do a virtual house visit. That goes well, then we do an in person house visit so the bird, like, is comfortable. It's not always necessary that we do the the in person house visit, but if there's other pets or young kids or something, we like to make sure that the bird is comfortable before going into that home. And then we require a course. Usually takes about an hour just to get everybody's expectations on the same page and a little bit of training tips.
Janine:And, yeah, the birds go with a health certificate, microchip, and their cage.
Bryn:I got to ask microchip. Where where do you microchip a bird?
Janine:In their breastbone. Their breast muscle. Not in the bone. Not in the bone.
Ian:In the muscle.
Bryn:Sorry. Yeah. Right there.
Ian:Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
Bryn:Yeah. Pretty effective?
Janine:Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It well, you get two conures that look identical. How do you tell them apart?
Bryn:I guess so.
Janine:You know? Aside from personality, you know, it's a quick a quick little scan with the microchip. Yep. There's kiwi. There's Yoshi.
Bryn:Can can you tell right away whether or not this isn't gonna work or that's gonna work?
Ian:Is it easy
Bryn:for you?
Janine:For people? Yeah. Yes. Mhmm. A lot of times.
Bryn:Yes. I would say the dogs are not the things that have to be trained. It's the owner has to be trained. So is it the same here?
Janine:Yep. Absolutely. 100%.
Bryn:Okay. So when we come back on episode number two, is there a bird that you're thinking of right now, a story that maybe you can tell us a little bit about?
Janine:Well, we got lots. We have we have lots. We've got Amazons and cockatoos. I can tell you anything about any of them.
Bryn:Hey. It's now time to wrap things up with the bird's eye view. Hey. Every day, there's new exciting visitors who come to your backyard feeder. We've all seen them, and we all expect them to drop by.
Bryn:The biggest thing I'm a classic example of this. I don't know I don't know how to identify them, but it's all new and exciting stuff for me. Ian, we gotta talk about the migration, that type of thing, and we also have to be ready for visitors when they come to the backyard. You gotta hear this a million times here.
Ian:Yeah. All the time. Yeah. What who who's coming? What's been here?
Ian:Why are they here? When are they leaving? Yeah. That's it's a steady steady conversation.
Bryn:Well, we're gonna talk about migration, I'm sure, throughout the year. I'm already now this let me kinda give you my background story on this. So we had to say goodbye to our our dog, Jack's, the golden retriever, about a year and a half ago. And after about two or three weeks of sitting on the back patio, I recognized it's too quiet back here. So I decided to do something I've always wanted to do.
Bryn:I got myself a bird feeder. I didn't have a clue of what to put in it. Nothing like that. But this is where you guys come in and you come up big Yeah. Because you can help people like me attract different birds.
Bryn:I've I've had a lot of different things, but the one thing that's blown me away is I didn't realize that they were almost on a on a watch on a like, every day, I know the squirrels coming around dinnertime. Yeah. I know that, the magpies are there first thing in the morning. This is mind blowing. I don't think people realize that when they buy a bird feeder.
Ian:No. And and the more you watch, the more you're kinda gonna get into that circadian rhythm that that that, you know, the world goes by. Right? So yeah. So you'll have the same guys coming at the same time, you know, depending on where we are during the year.
Ian:They might be bringing their chicks, their kids. So, you know, this is a great spot to eat. It's safe here. Don't worry. And and, know, and then it gets to be a generational feeder.
Bryn:I've often wondered this, and and I don't know if you've done any homework on this or not, but I always wonder if they just stumble on my bird feeder. Do you think that they actually know that this is the place where this guy is gonna provide me with that? Do you think do you think that there's a they're on a bit of a they're they're kind of on a a bus route
Ian:type of thing. Right? Well, I think it starts out because they're always watching. Right? So they're you know, and I don't care what species of bird we're talking about.
Ian:They're always watching what everybody else is doing in the neighborhood because if you're not watching, that's how you end up being somebody's meal. Right? So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:So they're always kinda paying attention. And then then, you know, if, if you're a species like, say, a house sparrow, which is a pretty prevalent bird and there's lots of them, you know, the other birds will start watching the house sparrows saying, hey. Where where where are they getting their their food? And they might just sort of tootle on by and take a look. Hey.
Ian:Oh, look at that. Well, as soon as that guy's out of here, I'm gonna reach in there and get my get my fill. And then, you know, once he gets to be part of that rhythm, then, yeah, he'll get more birds.
Bryn:Now this is the first episode. So there's gotta be a million guys like me that walk in here and go, I really I'm not completely sure what I'm doing. I need some help.
Ian:Yeah. For sure. And I will tell you, it's a never ending learning curve because what works really well in my yard might not work at all in your yard. It's how you're set up, what what else is going on in the environment. You know, it's there's lots that lots goes into it.
Bryn:The other thing too is, I've always wondered whether or not I should be cleaning the bird feeder and all that kind
Ian:of stuff. Yeah.
Bryn:Should I be doing that? Yeah. Constantly?
Ian:Yeah. So you should clean your bird feeder more so than, say, a birdhouse. Birdhouses, obviously, you clean that once a year type thing. But the bird feeder, especially if you're getting a lot of the house finches, small birds. Yes.
Ian:I would be cleaning that thing out probably every month. Give it a good give it a good cleaning. Just because there's you know, especially during high migration times, there's lots of traffic, lots of stuff, and you can get stuff like avian Yeah. Yeah. Conjunctivitis or stuff like that, and it it's easily spreadable to a lot of them and and k.
Ian:Could have a real problem. But, yeah, cleaning is important.
Bryn:The other one too, that I did not realize is that there seems to be I'm gonna use my fingers here. There's a pecking order. Yes. I I've come to realize that there are some birds that are on the higher end of the hierarchy Yeah. And some are not.
Bryn:But, the biggest birds that I've seen already in my backyard is the is a monstrous woodpecker. It's like the size of a loon, at least that's my take
Janine:Yeah.
Bryn:That when they show up Mhmm. Nothing else comes close. Same with the magpies and the crows a little bit, but they're not always there. No. It just seems like it's the law of order.
Ian:Yeah. Well, sure. And then, you you know, when you got a big big pileated woodpecker come in, like you say, it's it's it's huge. And and some of the other birds, because they have such a a a huge range too, like the pileated Woodpecker, they don't you know, they're not just gonna hang out in your yard specifically. They're gonna come by, make a visit maybe every couple days or something like
Bryn:that.
Ian:Yeah. So every when those guys show up, everybody just sort of, hey. Take your turn. You're yeah. You know, there's nothing I'm gonna do about this.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. I'm not gonna push my way And, you know, and then and then the little guys are just waiting for them to leave, and then they'll move right in.
Bryn:Okay. So when we talked about just getting things up and running here
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:With Meika's, how long did it take before you discovered that birdhouses and feeders was gonna be a huge part of what you do, not just just not just the rope purchase. Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. No. It was actually from the very get go. Okay. Because like I said, Janine's very much focused on on on the parrot side of things.
Ian:She she she likes the wild bird stuff, but it it wasn't her her passion, as much as some would have been with mine. I didn't know that it was gonna I thought, you know, we sell a couple bird houses and then, you know, a, you know, a pile of bird toys. Like, I thought, you know, just something to something to help balance it out. But it turns out it holds its own. It's probably, you know, it's probably, you know, the bigger chunk of, of how things go here.
Bryn:Hey. Quickly tell us about the staff here because I look around and everybody seems to enjoy working here, but they all know their stuff.
Ian:I pay them to say that.
Bryn:No. It's working. It's working well.
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. No.
Bryn:But but it's just you have to also be a resource. You can't just sell. Right?
Ian:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And they all they all have a passion for for feeding birds, you know, and and and watching birds and and and for nature in general. Right?
Ian:So they're all very much in tune to that. And and I think it's important that they're that they're always learning too. So they're not they're not just saying, hey, Brynn, this is what you need to do. They'll they'll ask you some questions. You know, what's your yard look like?
Ian:What know, is there something maybe happening here that we can, you know, help you out with?
Bryn:Or Yeah.
Ian:Yeah. So they want they want they wanna know more about you, not necessarily just saying, well, that, you know, you put this feeder in this in in this food in that feeder, and you and you're gonna be good because it doesn't always work.
Bryn:Is there a family connection here, by the way?
Ian:Oh, yeah. Yeah. So my son also works here.
Bryn:Okay.
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Wow. A big you know? Do you talk about birds at home?
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. That's well, it depends. Right? So
Bryn:Yeah. Yeah.
Ian:There there's there's two streams of conversation at my house, and it's usually hockey or or birds. Sure.
Bryn:Why not? Yeah. Absolutely. Hey. Listen.
Bryn:This has been fun, this first episode. Just getting our feet wet, our web feet
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Wet. So this has been a blast, and and thanks for joining us today. If you're a bird brain like me and you want some information or you're looking for some of the latest stuff, this is a fabulous place to visit. We're in Sherwood Park, Alberta.
Ian:Yeah.
Bryn:Do have people check you out online?
Ian:Yeah. Yeah. Mika'sbirdhouse.com.
Bryn:Okay.
Ian:There's an online store. Everything's everything's there for you to look at.
Bryn:Hey. Thanks for joining us today. If you're a birdbrain like me and you don't wanna miss our next podcast, then check us out on any of your favorite ear candy sites like Apple, Spotify, Google. There's lots of them out there. Make sure you tell your friends and make sure you follow or subscribe to our podcast.
Bryn:That way when a new one drops, 'll get the new one right to your home perch. And, also, if you're not as the crow flies and you can't drop into our location, check us out online at mika'sbirdhouse.com. That's it for the Birdhouse Banter. Have yourself a great day. Let's get chirping.