Pine Cone Bird Feeders
For me one of life’s simple pleasures is catering to the wildlife that frequent our yard. We live in a small, rural town where woodland surrounds our property. It isn’t unusual to see wild turkeys and deer trespassing across the lawn.
Now that Spring has sprung, we look forward to being able to open windows, feel the fresh air, and hear the chirps and chippers of our local and returning bird residents.
Filling the feeders has long been a routine and special time I enjoy with my kids. A couple of weeks ago we were performing the endless task of picking pine cones out of the yard, when I was inspired to make our own feeders. These are easy and cheap to make…and a great craft project for kids!
Peanut Butter Pine Cones: A WILD (Bird) Treat !!!
Spreading the Peanut Butter
What you’ll need….
peanut-butter-on-pine-cone
15 pine cones*
18oz jar off inexpensive creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1lb wild birdseed
medium weight string or pipe cleaners
shallow dish or bucket
butter knife, spoon, or fingers
newspaper
(scissors)
*If you don’t have any pine cones in your neighborhood, you can purchase them at your local craft store. Also, if your pine cones are closed up, try heating them up in the oven on low. This should open them up and fix the problem.)
Coating the pine cone with seed
What to do….
Cover your work area with newspaper for easy clean-up. Or even better, make your feeders outside on the lawn and skip this step all together!
Pour some of the wild birdseed into your shallow dish or bucket.
Tie a secure knot on the stem of each pine cone using about 12 inches of string or Twist the middle part of your pipe cleaner around the stem.
Using a butter knife or spoon to cover each pine cone with about two tablespoons of peanut butter. We used our fingers. We like to get messy!
Fully coated pine cone
Place each covered pine cones into the shallow dish or bucket and roll it around until it is completely covered with seed.
Set pine cone aside and repeat the above until all pine cones have been coated and covered.
Now it’s time to hang your feeders. If you used the pipe cleaners, you can attached your feeders to trees by twisting the pipe cleaners ends around the branches … You can do the same with the string and/or you may choose to string several pine cones together to make vertical wreaths as we did.
What you’ll attract….
Bluejays, Northern Cardinals, Squirrels…lot’s of squirrels…careful where you hang your feeders.
Happy Birding!
Contributed by Jessica Layne of AllThingsNewEngland.com, New England’s own online magazine and resource guide.
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