Black eyed Susan seed pods? The black eye is the seed head. Collect them when dry. I sometimes wear a pair of thin rubber gloves when I try to separate the seeds from the chaff, because they can prick your fingers.

I also use a pair of blunt clippers to clamp down the seed heads and twist the clippers to separate the seeds and chaff from the head. . It's easier than using your fingers to split them.

When the seed heads are really dry, it is much easier to separate the seeds from the seed head. In that case I would just rub them between my index and thumb and they would come off.

I then winnow the seeds and all to separate the seeds from their chaff.

Here is a link that might be useful: Black eyed susan seeds

Seed heads:

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thank you that does help. I wasn't sure what the seeds looked like. There's about 100 or more of those seed heads out in the flowerbed now that I know that each one is filled with tiny seeds will make it easier to gather and remove them. If you need any seeds let me know I will be happy to send you some.
Thank you
Janet

I don't try too hard to seperate seed from chaff. I generally shade the head and the seed and some chaff fall out. I simply identify the seed as the shorter, gray/black pegs among the lighter brown chaff. I sow them with the chaff and there's no problem.

I just cut the heads in a bowl and shake the bowl. I try to remove most of the big chaff, but just bag up the rest. Works fine.

Now that I know where the seeds were I put the seed heads in a plastic bag and shook it then seperated the chaff using a sifter then repeated the process till no more seeds fell in the bag. Very little amounts of chaff fell through with the seeds.