It’s become somewhat of a yearly tradition for Miss G and I to make fun homemade bird feeders for our feathered friends each winter. As much as I’m {admittedly} not a huge bird lover, I certainly don’t want them to go hungry while their usual food sources are scarce or unavailable. Plus, our little lady adores them and that’s enough for me.
I swear, I’m not a hoarder. In fact, with something like 49 moves under my belt in my 31 years, it’s quite the opposite. I’d much rather toss/recycle/give something away than have to lug it to a new location. Buuuuuuut, the other day after juicing a bunch of citrus fruit, I couldn’t help but think that there might be something we could do will all of the empty rinds (please tell me some of you do this too). Not knowing what it was at the moment, I tossed them all into a container in the fridge and decided I’d figure it out later. Sure enough, a couple of days later as I was grabbing something from the fridge, I remembered the very unique bird feeders I’d seen on Happy Hooligans a few months back. Gracen loves birds and we love to keep our backyard feather friends well fed, so I decided we’d make our own version of the project.
First, we gathered a few things from around the house… The rinds, some baker’s twine (Greenmunch is a great place to buy it, plus everything party, mason jar, and crafting related!), an large embroidery needle, and a pushpin.
After threading our needle and tying a knot at the end, we pushed our embroidery needle through one side of our citrus cup, straight through the other side. I thought we may need the tack to start our holes, but we totally didn’t (though you might if you had a particularly tough rind). I did the poking, and Miss G did the pulling through part.
With the twine pulled all the way through, we pulled up the centre to create a long loop for hanging.
Next, we did a quarter turn and fed the needle straight through the rind again, this time perpendicular to the first set of holes.
Then we pulled the second centre string up to meet the first and tied a knot on the outside of the citrus cup in order to secure everything.
While she helped me ‘sew’ the first couple of rinds, Gracen discovered that she could make some pretty interesting creations with the extra citrus cups and pushpins, so that’s what she did.
This little lemon went from having ‘pokey hair’ to being an octopus, to being a porcupine, and many other things along the way.
When our citrus rind cups were complete, we focused on the food portion of the process.
All we did was take some bird seed (we used a wild bird variety), and mixed in a tablespoon of all-natural peanut butter for every half cup of seed in order to give it some ‘stick’.
Then Grae carefully filled the cups with the sticky seed mixture one scoop at a time.
We used 1 1/2 cups of seed with 3 tablespoons of peanut butter and it filled 2 grapefruit cups and 2 lemon cups until heaping.
With that, it was off to hang the new feeders in the backyard.
Gracen was very specific and knew she wanted one in our apple-pear tree, one in our fig tree, and one in our plum tree… And the other one got hung in our rose bush.
Now let’s bring on the hungry birdies!
See our other bird feeders here and here.
♥
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I must admit, I’ve seen many recipes like this one from Under the Sycamore floating around the internet, and I’ve been skeptical. Very skeptical, in fact. I guess I was envisioning some sort of jello-y bird seedy concoction and I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that a hunk of seedy gelatine could last more than a few minutes (especially in the summertime) when tied to a string and hung from a tree.
I’m happy to say, our experiment was a success. Not only do we have trees sprinkled with pretty bird feeders (thus some very happy birds), but Gracen was able to do almost all of the steps on her own at our butcher block and there was no stove required.
Here’s what we used for the project… Bird seed, gelatine, boiling water, straws cut into 2 inch pieces, some baker’s twine, and some cookie cutters and pancake moulds.
We started off by emptying two packets (not boxes – the above photo is misleading) of plain gelatine into a very large mixing bowl.
Then I carefully poured in a little bit of boiling water (this is one of the only jobs I did for the project).
Gracen then stirred the mixture very gently until all of the gelatine was dissolved.
Next, we measured out our bird seed. We used a “wild bird” variety, but I think pretty much any type would work as long as the seeds and bits are not too big – I think a finer blend works best in this case.
Then Grae poured the bird seed into our gelatine/water mixture.
We stirred it for a few minutes, making sure that all of the seeds were evenly coated and that there was no longer excess water at the bottom of the bowl.
Next, we covered a tray in parchment paper and laid out our cookie cutters and moulds.
Using a teaspoon, Grae filled each cookie cutter with seed, one by one.
Here she is hard at work…
You want to make sure that they’re a little bit overfull, so be generous with the seed. (This recipe made these five feeders, plus a large bird seed “cupcake” too).
Because the mixture gets really sticky, we covered the cookie cutters with a layer of parchment and Grae pressed the seeds down into the moulds.
You want to make sure the seeds are packed very tightly – it’s part of what makes the feeders stay together well.
Next, we took our straws and carefully inserted them into the cookie cutters, making sure to not place them too close to the edges. Once the straws were in the seed, we pressed the seeds down around them to make sure everything stayed tight.
Next, we popped the entire tray into the fridge and let them set for a couple of hours before taking them out and letting them dry out on the counter. We left them for most of the evening, and before I went to bed for the night, I flipped them over so that the bottoms could dry out too. (It’s a bit awkward to flip them with the straw sticking out the way it is, but you could trim the straw if you liked.)
The next morning, we gently popped the shapes out of their moulds.
Then we plucked out the straws and made sure that the holes were clear all the way through.
For the last step, we took some baker’s twine (ribbon or jute would be perfect too), put it through the holes, and knotted the tops. Voila! Pretty little feeders for the hungry birds in our yard.
Cookie Cutter Bird Seed Feeders (a toddler-friendly method)
Adapted very slightly from this recipe
Pour the water into a very large mixing bowl. Add two packages of gelatine and stir until it’s fully dissolved. Add the bird seed and mix well until everything is evenly coated.
Place cookie cutters/moulds onto a parchment-lined tray and scoop seed mixture in until heaping full. Place another piece of parchment on top of the cookie cutters and press down firmly to pack in all of the seeds. Remove the top parchment layer and gently poke straw pieces all the way through the seed shapes (be sure not to put them too close to the edges). Pop the tray into the fridge for a couple of hours to allow the feeders to set.
Later on, remove the tray from the fridge and let sit on the counter to dry out. Flip the cookie cutters over a few hours later to let the bottoms dry out too. Let sit for at least 3 – 4 more hours (overnight is best) until the feeders are completely dry.
Gently remove the seed shapes from the moulds (they should be fully dry and hard to the touch at this point – if not, allow to dry longer). Carefully remove the straws and tie a twine loop through the holes. Hang in a tree.
♥
Despite the incident we had at Granville Island a couple of months back, our little lady remains a dedicated bird lover (unlike her mama). So today we headed out into our sunshiny backyard, supplies in hand, to make a couple of simple, toddler-friendly bird feeders. Here’s what we did…
Seedy Bagel Rings:
For this project, we used wild bird seed mix, some wholewheat bakery bagels, some ‘just peanuts’ peanut butter, some jute (it’s biodegradable and can be repurposed by birds when building their nests), a spatula, and some scissors.
First things first, cover one side of the bagel with peanut butter.
You want it nice and thick so that the seeds really stick.
Then plop it, peanut butter side down, into the seed mixture.
Really push it down into the seeds to collect as many as possible.
It should look something like this.
Next, spread peanut butter on the other side.
And cover it completely with seeds.
Almost done! While you tie a loop of jute through the middle of the bagel, have your little one wash the gobs of peanut butter off of her hands.
Tada! Here’s the finished product.
Now tie them up in a tree and wait for hungry birds to flock your way.
Toasted O Loops:
For this feeder, we used jute, scotch tape, low-sugar toasted O cereal, and some scissors.
First thing, cut a piece of jute, tie a triple knot at one end, and wrap a small bit of tape around the other end so that it doesn’t fray.
Next, string the o’s onto the jute, one by one.
It’s a slow process… Especially if your munchkin eats five o’s for every one she strings!
When you’ve got a nice long string, make a loop and tie it at the top.
Then knot it onto a tree branch. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
I’m sure we’re inviting all kinds of scary crows and seagulls into our yard with these tempting treats swinging from our trees, but if it provides some entertainment for our little bird watcher, it’ll be worth it.