Make Birdseed Feeders - Illustrated Step-by-Step

Make bird feeders for bird lovers and for your own back yard. We used sonbird feed from Lowe's because it has nuts and dried fruit as well as canary feed all in the same bag and was on sale.

The classic cake mixing directions are to mix the dry ingredients in one bowl

 to ensure good combining. This is the flour and plain gelatin.

This is the flour and plain gelatin.

Then the wet ingredients are combined in another container.

I put a few drops of olive oil in the measuring cup and used my fingers to

coat the cup so the Karo syrup wouldn't stick to the

sides or bottom of the glass. Then, the cold water went in.

When the wet and dry ingredients were combined

it was more watery than I expected.

Also, it had to be beaten to get the lumps out.

Next the bird seed. We used 2.5 measuring cups to get the flour mix saturated with seeds.

I had read that if you skimp in the seed, there will be chunks of flour/gelatin mixture that the birds don't like.

 I put a piece of waxed paper on a kitchen towel and spooned a fourth of the mix onto the paper. I had a can of fruit and a rolling pin handy, but the easies way to flatten the goo was simply to fold over the paper or put a second sheet of waxed paper on top.

When the cutter is put into the flattened blob of birdseed mix, they should be about the same depth.  I found that if you are pressing decorative berries into the mix, do it while the cutter is still on. After the cutter is removed, pressing the decorations in will smash the shape of the seed hanger.

Then, remove the cutter and make a hole in the center with a straw.

Here's a wax paper lined cookie sheet filled with hangers.

After 2 days of drying, the hangers are ready for ribbons and hanging for the birds.