Pine Cone Bird Feeders

My new home is on a heavily wooded lot.  The back yard is bordered by a creek.  It is the perfect spot to hang bird feeders.

So my two year old grandson and I decided to make some.  It was so much fun and sooo eaassyyyy, we thought we would pass this easy to do craft on to my hub-friends.

This is what you will need on hand.

• Pine cones-the bigger the better. In this part of Atlanta, they are everywhere and free
• Peanut butter
• A solid fat-I used coconut oil as I had it on hand. If you can get ahold of suet or bacon fat, it can be melted down and used.  Butter or lard, any solid fat will do.  Stay away from solid vegetable oil if you can.
  
• A quality bird seed mixture
• String or fishing line
• Large bowl for mixing
• Wooden spoon or other large spoon
• Something plastic to pour out or roll the pine cones in
  

To make the peanut butter oil mixture

Melt the solid oil and mix in the peanut butter--that's why I like coconut oil, at 78 degrees F it is liquid.

Roll the pine cone in the mixture or drizzle it over the pine cone filling in all the nooks and crannies

How much, I don't know, I just guestamated. It was fairly liquidy to start with. It will harden up as the solid fat re-hardens.

I used baby yarn for string-it's what I had on hand and I always make do with what I have but...I think the squirrels will make quick work of the string. So next time I will use fishing line instead.

Tie the string around on end of the pine cone. I did two tied at the top and two tied at the bottom to see which will work best.

Now for the messy part.

We started by rolling the peanut butter pine cones in the bird seed that had been placed in a shallow plastic pan.

Then I had a better idea. I had a small plastic watering can. One of those one piece jobs with no seams and no top. We simply filled it with seeds and poured it over the pine cones. Things went much faster after that.

There may be bird feeders out there that are more sophisticated and better looking but:

• they are not cheap, what can be cheaper than free pine cones, store brand peanut butter, bird seed and string? and
  
• A morning spent with a grandchild
  

By the end of the day the nuthatches and the Carolina chickadees were having a ball flying between the four bird feeders.