Although winter hasn't been too cold so far and there doesn't seem to be any snow, you can do something good for your feathered garden friends and provide them with high-fat food. If you are one of those enthusiasts who prefer to make things yourself rather than buy them, you can make a pretty feeding bell yourself that not only fulfills its purpose but also adorns the bare garden. This is also a perfect project for children where you can teach them interesting facts about migratory birds and other local species.
The right container for feeding bells
If you want to make a feeding bell yourself, in the sense of a “bell”, you will of course need a suitable container that can be filled with the food and hung upside down. A clay pot or half a coconut shell is usually used for this. However, you can also use any other containers, provided they do not release any harmful substances. You can use plastic containers (e.g. yogurt cups) as molds and then recycle them (i.e. just hang up the shaped food without the cup).
We have two variants for you. Before you canin this articleFind out which food is best for which birds in order to put together a suitable mix.
Make your own feeding bell in a flower pot
Provide for the feeding bella clay pot. It's better to choose a smaller size and make several bells than one that is too large. You can use the pot to hang as you wish or just as a mold. Depending on the variant, proceed as follows:
Only use the pot for shaping
Prepare the flower pot by threading twine through the draining hole (forming it into a loop) and then lining it with baking paper (poke a hole for the twine through the paper). Now fill the pot with the prepared food, holding the yarn in the middle upwards. Finally, press the food mixture well to press out air and, depending on the recipe, put the whole thing in the freezer for an hour or bake the mixture (see recipes below).
Finally, you can tie a metal disc to stabilize the food a little. Take the feeding bell out of the pot by lifting it out using the paper. You can now hang them in the garden (or let them set for up to a week).
You can also use this variant with other molds.
Use the feeding bell together with the flower pot
Proceed in the same way, only this time you don't need baking paper to remove the food from the pot. Instead, fill the prepared food directly into the clay pot and hang it up later.
A cool variant would also be to hang the pot horizontally rather than upside down. In this case, you can incorporate a stick for the birds to sit on while eating. Simply thread the yarn through the hole and tie the ends together to hang the bell. Old cups are also suitable for this purpose.
There are different ways to make food for the birds. If you use shortening or gelatin, it is enough to let the food harden in the freezer. Recipes with eggs must be baked again. We have bird feeding bell versions for bothRecipes for you.
Make your own bird feeder – no-bake recipe with gelatin
- approx. 140 g grains/seeds
- 40 g Maismehl
- 60ml water
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder
- 1 tbsp light corn syrup (never honey)
Mix the dry ingredients and heat the water enough to allow the gelatin to dissolve. Add the liquid gelatin and corn syrup to the kernels and mix until well incorporated. Now you can fill your mold with it as described above and let it harden in the freezer (do not offer it to the birds when frozen).
Recipe idea with eggs for baking in the oven
Preheat the oven to 120 degrees. You need 2 egg whites per 140 g of bird seeds. So separate the eggs and whisk the whites. The result should be a fluffy mass that is not stiff. Then stir in the bird seed mix and pour the mixture into the prepared pots. Press them firmly. Bake the food for 60 to 90 minutes and let it cool. If you want to hang the bell without a pot, it is best to remove it when it is warm using the baking paper you used.
Find more tips for healthy birds in your gardenin this article.
