How to make a natural pine cone bird feeder.

​At the moment home working has become the norm, and Sarah our custodian at Pembrokeshire Natural Burial Ground is also doing some home schooling with her son Jesse. They had been tasked with making a bird feeder and decided that they wanted to do something natural. They have shared with us, ‘how they made a natural pine cone bird feeder’. 

'As part of Jesse’s school work we had to make a bird feeder. This could be any type of bird feeder, but Jesse is very environmentally aware since he understands the reasons we wanted  to offer natural burial in Pembrokeshire. He has been an important part of our journey establishing the natural burial ground, including helping me to plant new hedgerow and building our bug hotel and likes it when we do things that help the environment. After a bit of research with his nanny, he found out he could make a natural pine cone bird feeder and we are very lucky to have a fantastic conifer on one of our nearby walks. 

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First we went foraging for some fallen pine cones and came back with some wonderful cones that we dried out . If place your pine cones  near the radiator or a fire that you are using to heat your house this will open up the pine cones. This makes them much easier to fill and offers great little pews for the birds to sit and hold onto. ​​

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​Once they had opened up we took a pine cone and started making our bird feeder. First, we attached some recycled biodegradable string as we had read it was a good idea to do this at the start as making the bird feeder can get messy. Jesse then started filling the inside of the pine cone with some fat that we had saved using a spoon and a butter knife until it was covered. We read that lard and peanut butter work just as well if you are thinking about doing this yourself. ​

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We chose to cover the bird feeder with a mix of rolled oats (we were one told these were a favourite for Robins and Jesse loves watching the Robins), some pine nuts we had left over, and some wild bird seed. First Jesse mixed these up in a bowl, he started by rolling his pine cone in the mix, it did get messy but he had lots of fun and then sprinkled the mix onto any areas that had been missed. 

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​​This was the final result. We are going to hang it in our garden for our little birds to enjoy. We will add a photo of the birds using it, if we can capture one. It’s a really simple, fun way to make a natural bird feeder. ​Jesse said, “I loved making it, it was really good, a bit messy, but I like my new bird feeder a lot, I want to see the birds on it.” ​ ​I think we might be making a few more of these now we know how easy it is to do.' ​

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​“I loved making it, it was really good, a bit messy, but I like my new bird feeder a lot, I want to see the birds on it.” ​​- Jesse