Birdfeeder - A fun project from scrap

[Robby Tacheny]

Here is a fun weekend (well more like a Saturday) project which I did while cleaning up the shop. We have a couple of store bought bird feeders in our front yard, but I wanted a feeder in the back yard. The pic below is what I made.

Its all pine except for the two acrylic sides and finished with BLO to help with water proofing. The birds sit on a 3/8" dowel pin which is into the base with a 1/4" dowel pin inserted perpendicularly. Its nothing special, but I had a good time making it. I just ended up taking a picture because we had a nasty storm today and it knocked down some big branches from the tree it is hanging from.

Here is the freely available plan - http://www.wayneofthewoods.com/bird-feeder-plans.html

-R

[David Christopher]

Robby, nice looking feeder...hope you get lots of beautiful birds....prepare for squirells

[Robby Tacheny]

I made two squirrel feeders too in hope of doing that very thing! ;)

They consist of a 3" screw sticks up out of the bottom of an "L" shaped piece of wood attached to two other trees nearby. Thread an ear of corn onto the screw and pray! Squirrels are pretty determined little critters, though. I'll probably have holes chewed into it soon enough!

-R

[David Christopher]

Robby, I made the same L shape squirrel feeders a couple of years ago and they work pretty good

[John Thompson]

Nice little Saturday project Robby. As David stated.. build it and the squirrels will come. Hopefully the squirrel feeders will distract but from my own experience with the herd behind and around the sides of my house.. when they run out of food in the SF.. they head for the bird feeder.

Watch carefully as they will probably use the limb above.. then crawl down the rope to the feeder. As you stated... they are determined little buggers and won't allow much to stand in their way. I have seen them upside down on a wire to go under a tree limb that blocks the top of the wire. Not much stops them really.

I say that as I am watching one traverse a 100' power line to the top of my house from the pole at the street next to a tree. He or she will go end up on the roof and go down the side of the wall on the back deck to get his share of the bird seed that has been put on the top rail of the deck. When he or she leaves.. they might use the same route or very well may use tree limbs near the back deck after jumping 10" to one.

Ain't nature grand? :)

Sarge..

[Lee Schierer]

I made two squirrel feeders too in hope of doing that very thing! ;)

-R

Squirrels have a bad habit of picking out what they want to eat which may not coincide with what you are offering on the side. Cayane pepper mixed with the bird seed will stop the squirrels but not affect the birds.

If that fails a pellet gun also works......:D

[Mark Ball]

Nice looking feeder, but I am afraid the BLO won't hold up in the outdoors.

[Robby Tacheny]

I didn't figure the BLO would be a long term solution and truthfully I don't expect the feeder to last that long either. If it makes it through the summer, then it did its job.

If I were going for a long term solution I might do cedar and hang from chain. I have had good results with Helmsman Spar Urethane on pine, but I wasn't sure of the toxicity seeing as it will hold bird food.

I like watching the birds and the squirrels more than I care about the long term durability of my scrap wood project anyway! This bird feeder can be seen right from our bedroom widows, so the cats (who love to get the morning sun in the bedroom windows) and I will enjoy it until it breaks. Then I'll just build another one some Saturday.

I have my eye on this (http://www.scrollsawer.com/pdfdownloads/Victorian%20Birdfeeder%20Article.pdf) feeder (link goes to a PDF file) next. It looks to be more than a Saturday project due to the Scrolling that needs to be done.

-R