Bird Feeder Fun!

Wednesday 15th February we are holding a Bird Feeder activity 10am to 12pm. We will be showing how to use recycled items such as yoghurt pots to make perfect feeders for your garden birds. Using left over and stale food makes sure that nothing goes to waste and gives our feathered friends an energy boost made for free from things you no longer need. Perfect!

Make your own Bird Feeder
The moulds were anything I could collect up - washed out yoghurt and humous pots, some small jelly moulds, a couple of old baby bowls. You can use or recycle almost any kind of container - I did some with flat plastic trays that vegetables and meat came in to make slabs to go in the cage on my feeder.

I also used:

2 blocks of lard (cheap supermarket own brand)

A bag of dried mealworms

A bag of wild bird seed

An empty food tin, washed and dry

A ball of string

A pan of hot water

A large dish of cold water

Some cling film

A nice box and some tissue paper (optional!)

Cut the lard into cubes, put them in the tin and stand it in a pot of hot water. I did this on the cooker so I could put a low heat to it if I needed to. You shouldnt need the heat on all the time - you want the lard to warm enough to melt, but NOT hot - it will melt through your containers and burn you if you make it hot.

While it's melting, cut lengths of string and tie them into loops - one for each mould. I put a big knot in each one to give the finished feeder a better grip on the string when hung up.

Put a layer of dried mealworms at the bottom of the moulds. Fill them almost to the top with the wild bird seed. You need to put the worms on the bottom so the seed weighs them down - otherwise they all float to the top.

When your lard is liquid, lift the tin carefully (I wrapped a teatowel around mine) and gently pour into your mould. I used a small skewer to gently stir the mixture to make sure the lard was evenly mixed through. Top up as necessary. Make sure you put enough in to hold the dry ingredients together. Poke the string loop down into the middle of each mould. If this leaves a hole, fill with melted lard.

Once I had done all of my moulds, I put them into a shallow dish of very cold water to speed up the hardening of the lard. Once they were set I put them in the fridge overnight to harden them. Lard is solid but quite soft at room temperature so these are best kept refrigerated until you use them.

You can then hang these from a bird feeder, tree branches or outside a window and watch your gorgeous birds feast on your creation.

Have Fun!

Beth Kennett