Homemade Bird Feeders

Today we set about making some home made bird feeders for our garden. Winter is a very tough time for birds and they need high energy food to help maintain their fat supplies to keep warmer on cold frosty nights. This activity is a great way to share with children just how tough it is for animals at this time of year and discuss ways we can help make their time a little easier.

This is a very simple recipe that is great for preschoolers to be fully involved from start to finish. We are planning to give some of our home made bird feeders to our friends and family members too over the next week or so  to help birds that visit their gardens.



You will need
Bird seed
Gelatine
Straws
Warm water
Cookie Cutters
Spoons
Mixing Bowl
Tray
Silver Foil



I used a plastic lap tray for this activity. It provided the sturdy back needed whilst they were drying, it wouldn't absorb any spilt liquid and it was transportable. I had the option of being able to move the feeders if I needed to without disturbing them whilst they were setting. I lined with foil and we used some very sturdy Christmas themed cookie cutters which I purchased from a local supermarket. They are rather deep which I found worked well for this activity.

My daughter enjoyed placing them all out and identifying the shapes as she went.




While Neve was busy filling the bowl with bird seed, I began to dissolve the gelatin in warm water. There will be step by step instructions on the back of your gelatin on how to dissolve.

She really enjoyed scooping up the mixture and listening to the seeds crashing into one another as they filled the dish.



Once you have added the dissolved gelatin to your bird seed you will be able to judge if more seed needs to be added to the mixture or not.




Keep mixing and adding the bird seed gradually. Just as a guide we used one sachet of Gelatin to 350g of Birdseed. As you can see in the picture above there is still liquid so we added more seed until this was gone.

You have a few minutes to enjoy this part of the method before you will need to start thinking about transferring into your cutters.



As you reach a consistency where all the bird seed is covered in gelatin and there isn't much liquid remaining, start scooping up and filling your cutters. Make sure they are on a non-stick surface. We used kitchen foil and it worked fine.

Press the mixture down with your spoon, to compact the seed. When it is compacted add a straw to the top to allow for hanging once the feeders have set. Don't make your hole too close to the top as it can make the tops of your feeders weak, risking in them breaking or crumbling apart. This did happen to a couple of ours but its something I will remember for next time.




After around 2 hours or so you might want to consider flipping the filled cookie cutters over and allow to stand for another 2-3 hours. I did this for ours but not sure if it would make a difference or not.

Once they have set carefully release them from the cutters and add a ribbon to be hung up.

Why not consider making some additional homemade birdseed feeders for family and friends? Place them into clear bags and add ribbons and tags. In addition to giving some of ours to friends and family we took some of them to a local woodland: