Sunday 25 March 2012

Making Birdfeeders

Mr7 came grocery shopping with me yesterday (I rarely take the kids, I mean, shopping with kids is a drag!). He asked me if we could buy some bird seed to make bird feeders. Lucky for him I was feeling generous.

So today we sat down and made bird feeders. Mr7 chose to make one out of the empty ginger ale bottle we had in the recycling bin, but that didn't leave many options for mr4 and mr2 to make their out of. But then I spotted an empty rice milk tetra pack and then found another - perfect. Turns out, the tetra packs are SO much easier to make a bird feeder out of lol, easier to cut.

Anyways, here is how we made bird feeders:

  1. Firstly, wash and dry whatever bottle/carton thoroughly.
  2. Cut an opening on opposite sides of bottle (or just one side, we wanted 2 birds to be able to feed at the same time)
  3. Select a stick (could use bamboo skewers, a pencil, whatever you have handy, I sent the kids scavenging in the yard for some suitable sticks) to use as a perch - if you have 2 openings you want a longer stick to reach out both sides.
  4. Cut a hole beneath the opening for the stick on both sides and stick it through
  5. Cut holes for the string to go through at the top of bottle. Thread some string through - a tapestry needle is helpful!
  6. Fill the bottom with bird seed
  7. Go hang your bird feeder and wait for the birds... if the kids are hanging around it may take some time but at least the kids are out of your hair for a while heh heh heh

Mr 4 cutting the holes in his


My (I mean Mr2's) nearly finished bird feeder - just needs the string


Mr 7's nearly finished bird feeder



Mr2's bird feeder hanging and waiting


Mr 7's bird feeder hanging and waiting


Mr 4's bird feeder hanging and waiting


And waiting and waiting...

Tis a good little project to do with your kids now that the school holidays are approaching along with colder weather. I'm not sure how many birds my kids will attract at the moment as I'm sure the birds will still have enough food around at the moment, but who knows, maybe one day we will catch a bird having a meal courtesy of our feeders, and I will try to snap a pic in action! Wish us luck!

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