Home made bird feeders

We love watching the birds come to feed in our garden in the mornings and evenings and have such fun identifying which birds are which and watching the babies in the late spring. A great way to encourage birds to your garden is by providing them with something to eat – like these DIY bird feeders.

These are also great for feeding the birds in the winter when other food is sparser.

Bird seed cakes are simple and easy to make and good fun to do with the kids.

What you’ll need

• Bird seed
• Digestive biscuits
• Lard
• A pan
• Large bowl
• Spoon
• Empty yoghurt pots
• Scissors
• String*
• Lolly sticks*
• Skewer*

String, lolly sticks, and a skewer are only needed if you wish to make hanging bird cakes. You can also make them without the string to place on bird tables etc.

To prepare the yoghurt pots, make a hole in the bottom of a clean yoghurt pot with a skewer and poke a length of string (about 40cms should be a good length) through the hole. Tie a lolly stick to the end of the string so that is sits nicely over the opening to the yoghurt pot when the string is pulled tight.

To make the seed mixture you need a rough rule of 2 parts seed/biscuit mixture to 1 part lard.

First chop the lard into small cubes and place in the pan, then melt over a low heat.

Crush the biscuits in the bowl and then add the seed, mixing well.

Next add the lard to the seed and biscuit mixture and stir well.

The seed mixture is then ready to be added to the pots. We made some hanging pots with string and some without to place on our bird table. Pack the seed in nice and tight and make sure that the lolly stick is pressed hard up against the seed.

And place them place in the fridge to set. We left ours over night and they were nice and solid in the morning.

Getting the bird cakes out of the pots can be a bit tricky as they can fall apart if handled too roughly. We have found the best way is to cut them out. This does mean that you can’t reuse the yoghurt pots but does result in the most successful bird cakes.

Using either a sharp knife or your scissors, carefully cut the pots around the cake and slide the bird cake out.

Et Voila, bird seed cakes to either hang or place in your garden to encourage the lots of lovely little feathered friends to pay you a visit.

Heather Sunderland

Heather writes for the family website Bury Family Life about all things fun and family to do in and around Bury and Manchester. You can catch up with her on Twitter @BuryFamilyLife or keep up with Bury Family Life on Facebook.

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