Bird Feeders Made With Peanut Butter
Birds' favorite naturally occurring foods may be plentiful during the summer months, but late fall through early spring heralds a famine for your feathered friends. Fortunately, you can create homemade feeders to keep the birds healthy and active all winter long. Not only does peanut butter taste good to birds, it also provides them with proteins and fats necessary to surviving the winter. Plus, peanut butter bird feeders provide an entertaining indoor activity for the kids. Does this Spark an idea?
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Pine Cone Feeder
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This kind of bird feeder costs only as much as the birdseed that makes up its final layer. Additionally, you and the kids can have fun searching for suitable pine cones outside. Pick dry, brown pine cones with open scales. Large pine cones with widely spaced scales will hold the most food. Use a spoon to smear peanut butter onto each pine cone, going against the grain of the scales to ensure the scales hold the maximum amount of spread possible. Roll the sticky pine cone in birdseed and hang it from a tree branch or fence post with fishing line. Place it close to the branch or post so birds can perch and eat.
Screen Feeder
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If you have old window screen, don't toss it; turn it into a bird feeder. Cut the screen into five-inch squares and tie nylon string through the mesh in one of the corners. Since screens have sharp little wires along the edges, protect both birds and your children by bending them down with pliers. Use a butter knife to spread peanut butter over both sides of each square, leaving a quarter-inch border of screen around the edge. Sprinkle the peanut butter heavily with oatmeal, dried fruit and birdseed. The birds will be able to perch on the screen edges while they eat.
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Bagel or Toast
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Heels of bread and time-hardened bagels needn't go into the trash. As long as they aren't moldy, you can make them into organic bird feeders rich in protein. Toast the bread to give it some stability; bagels are dense enough that you can leave them untoasted. Smear both sides of either bread product with peanut butter and press it into a seed mixture. Slip bagels onto tree branches through the center hole. Smear the other side of toast with peanut butter and stick them to tree trunks and thick branches.
Cardboard Shapes
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Recycle old cereal boxes and milk cartons into eco-friendly bird feeders. You and the kids can cut the cardboard into different shapes like stars, moons, gingerbread men, bird silhouettes and leaf shapes. Punch a hole into one of the edges of the shape and tie fishing line or natural-fiber twine through the hole. Smear both sides of the shape with peanut butter. Place dried fruit, fresh cranberries and different kinds of seeds into the peanut butter to create a mosaic pattern. This makes the feeders pretty and practical.
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References
- Photo Credit a bird (nuthatch) on a birdfeeder image by Yuri Timofeyev from Fotolia.com
