Activities & Days Out / 23 January, 2019 / Nanny Anita

DIY Birdseed Feeder to Celebrate RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch Weekend!

To celebrate the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend, I’ve put together this brilliant DIY birdseed feeder for the kids. Be warned – before we get started this activity takes PATIENCE! It will work, you just have to give it time.

YC loves to feed the birds, she often sprinkles her left over crumbs outside for them and we always take birdseeds with us to the park for them. Last year we made some toilet roll feeders for them, this year we made little birdseed ornaments.

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You will need:

• Birdseed
• Gelatine
• Boiling water
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon
• Cookie cutters
• Straws
• Tin foil
• Cooking tray
• String

We had to do this a couple of times because I was really impatient and didn’t fully read the instructions for this one (you can insert an eye roll here).

First dissolve 2 packets of gelatine into a pint of boiling water. This amount makes about 9 shapes.

Then add about 600ml of bird seed to it and mix it really well so that everything gets a good soaking.

Place your cookie cutters onto a cooking tray lined with tin foil and spoon in the mix.

Using the back of a spoon make sure that you really press it down into the shapes.

Cut a straw into bits and poke it through your birdseed cakes.

Here is were I went wrong (the first time), put the tray into the fridge for a few hours and then take it out! I left our first batch in the fridge over night and everything ended up really soggy and just broke apart. The second batch worked better, but it isn’t over yet.

Once you have taken them out of the fridge, take them carefully out of their shapes. If you use too much pressure they will break apart. Again, this is were I kind of went wrong. You need to leave them to dry over night. I didn’t think that this would work, but low and behold, it did.

I left the straws in and thread some string through it so that they could hang up outside.

YC was very happy with the results of her DIY birdseed feeder, and is hoping that the little birdies will like them too.

I would highly recommend going to the RSPB website for more ideas about what seeds are best.

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