Make a Peanut Butter Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Bring the wild birds to your yard. Enjoy bird watching with this simple peanut butter pine cone bird feeder. A kid-friendly project, a pine cone bird feeder takes about 30 minutes to make and provides your backyard feathered friends with nourishing treats. All you need is a fairly large pine cone or several smaller ones. Here's how to make a pine cone bird feeder with plenty of tips to help--from collecting to hanging.

Best Time to Make Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Pine cone bird feeders are best made and used in the fall and winter when birds benefit from supplemental food during harsh weather. What's more, cold temperatures keep the peanut butter from melting and seeds from falling out of the pine cone. Plus, cool temperatures help keep oils from going rancid.

Collecting Your Pine Cones

Take a nature hike along a logging road and gather native pine cones in the fall when they drop from the trees. Recently dropped pine cones have fresh resin, and the resin is sticky and difficult to get off hands. Consider wearing gloves to pick them up, or a plastic bag over your hand works well too.

If you have no pine cones where you live, you can always purchase pine cones from a craft store. But be sure the pine cones are fragrance-free. Birds won't enjoy your pine cone bird feeders with perfumes or oils in them, and they could be harmful.

Preparing Your Pine Cones

Bake your gathered pine cones on a foil-lined shallow pan at 200-250 degrees. If your pine cones are small, 20 minutes is enough. Larger pine cones may take up to an hour. Heat opens the pine cones, releases seeds, and glazes or hardens the sap or resin. This is important for getting rid of the natural stickiness.

Heat also kills spiders and other insects that may have made the pine cone home. But stay by the oven to guard against potential fire, and be sure your ventilation system is working. You probably won't care for the odor given off by the baking pine cones.

Peanut Butter Tips

Get a generic brand of peanut butter and save money. Be sure to find a brand without hydrogenated oils in it. Trans-fat is not considered good for man or bird. In fact, it has been known to have a laxative effect on birds.

If you get chunky peanut butter, the peanut bits may be easier to grasp in a beak than smooth peanut butter. Some people believe that birds may have trouble digesting peanut butter or may choke on smooth peanut butter. But that may be a myth, according to FamilyCorner.com. To be confidant, just add equal amounts of cornmeal and crunchy peanut butter to the mix. It makes it easier to eat and stretches a lesser amount of peanut butter over a lot more area.

eef fat, but it can turn rancid quickly. Some people use shortening, but shortening is an unhealthy tans-fat. You are probably better off just sticking with peanut butter--no pun intended.

Best Seed for Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Use the type of bird seed for the sort of birds you want to attract--seeds that are natural to your area. Birds have been known to ignore sorghum, red millet, and wheat, but black sunflower is a favorite high energy food.

Some people also like to stuff chunks of apples or raisins into the cavities of the pine cone. Birds are quite fond of fruit bits and will enjoy the added fruit.

Making Your Pine Cone Bird Feeder

You are ready to begin making your pine cone bird feeder. You will want to work over a floor that's easy to clean, not over carpet. Lay newspaper on your workspace to help contain the mess. This is also a great way to scoop up the mess when done and dispose of it quickly. Have a wash bucket or sink close by, because hands will get messy.

Your first task is to add a hanger to your pine cone. Around the top or base of the open pine cone, tie a 2-3 foot long piece of string, twine, pipe cleaner, ribbon, or yarn about 2-3 petals down and knot it. This is how you will suspend the pine cone bird feeder from a tree branch.

For a large pine cone, mix 1 cup seeds with ½ cup peanut butter and ½ cup cornmeal. Some directions for making pine cone bird feeders have you put only peanut butter on the pine cone and then roll it in seeds. But if you mix the peanut butter with some seeds first, you can push seeds deeper into the pine cone.

Apply the peanut butter-seed mixture in between pine cone petals. Press the mixture in with a knife or spatula, and then cover the whole pine cone with it. Next, roll the pine cone in 1-2 cups of seed in a foil-lined pan. Press firmly as you roll it to embed lots of seed. Shake off excess seed. To seal the seed to the pine cone, put it in your freezer until it sets. It takes about an hour to firm it up. Now your pine cone bird feeder is ready to hang.

Hanging Your Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Hang your pine cone bird feeder where you can see it clearly. If you want to watch birds feed from inside the house, place it where you can view it through a window and enjoy watching the birds in any weather. If you tie your pine cone bird feeder so it hangs down close to a tree branch, it allows birds a place to perch while eating.

If you want your pine cone bird feeder to be exclusively for birds, hang it on a 3-foot line of fishing filament instead of on string or ribbon. Hang it far from any other branch or launch-post; otherwise, you'll be feeding your neighborhood squirrels too.

You can make more than one pine cone bird feeder and hang several at differing heights to encourage different types of birds to feed. The place you hang the feeder is really up to you. Just be sure it allows birds visibility to see predators, and be careful it isn't hanging too low, or you make it easy for cats to find a bird meal.

Once it's in position, all you do is wait patiently. Human scent from your hands may take a day or two to wear off the pine cone bird feeder. As soon as that happens, the birds will come to feast.

Why not make this simple bird feeder craft for yourself or as a great kid-friendly craft project? Kids can make it and take it in one day and give the pine cone bird feeders as gifts. A peanut butter pine cone bird feeder in a backyard is its own little wildlife habitat.

Source:
Amanda Formaro, "Common Myths About Birds, Feeders, anFormarot Butter", FamilyCorner.com