How to Choose Old Wood to Make Birdhouses

Series Summary

Birds need houses, just like we need houses. Of course birds don't need houses like ours, but they do have certain preferences such as a dry house that shields them from the wind, rain, and predators. With these basic needs taken care of, little else is necessary; however, if you're building a birdhouse that you will be looking at, you might want to make it interesting by adding some unique decorative aspects to it. But first of all you need to know how to make a basic birdhouse. Our expert can show you for free and online how to make a birdhouse and can give you tips for making unique specialty birdhouses.

In this free how to video series, learn how to make birdhouses from birdhouse construction expert Bob Olsen. Bob will demonstrate important tips for making birdhouses including how to cut wood to make a birdhouse, how to cut walls for a birdhouse, how to attach the walls and roof of a birdhouse, how to make and attach a chimney to a birdhouse, how to drill a door for a birdhouse, and finally how to decorate a birdhouse.

Video Transcript

"I'm Bob Olsen from Expert Village. And I thought I'd talk to you a little bit about old time bird houses and how easy it is to make some of these out of some old wood. And, some woods I got here, that you find them in old barns and what have you. Some is this, and they they're pretty bad shape. But most of these woods are, if they're real old they're put together with square nails. And if you find real old wood that's with square nails you know that it's probably close to a hundred years old. I make bird houses out of these because I think the old wood is quite attractive and I'm going to show you how to use this old wood and make bird houses. I'm going to try to make just a simple bird house not a, not a extravagant one like I got here. I'll show you a little hints how to make it a little bit nicer, and a little bit different than anything else. I've been known to make some very different ones. I make some that looks like they're falling apart and people like them. The, the roofs are caving in, and the chimneys tipped over, the windows, doors, and what have you are crooked and everything else. And, but I enjoy doing it that way, and people enjoy seeing them like that. So this one I'm going to show you how to do. So we'll start out with just pieces of wood just like this, and we'll make a bird house out of it."