This month, our Buchheit Buddy workshop will show you how to make pinecone bird feeders. We need to make sure our local bird friends are kept fed through the cold winter months, so there’s no better time than now to help them out.

Supplies

Instructions

  1. Gather some pinecones from your yard. If you don’t have any, ask your neighbor. Or you can find them at the store. Just be careful that if you buy them, they aren’t scented or have any paint/sparkles/etc. on them.
  1. Grab an open pinecone. (This means that the scales are spread apart.)
    If you can’t find any open pinecones, grab mom or dad and have them stick it in the oven for you at a really low temperature.
  1. Cut about 12-18” of your twine or string.
  1. Wrap the string around the bottom, larger part of the pinecone and tie it together.
  1. Take your peanut butter and spatula and begin to spread the peanut butter throughout the insides of the scales of the pinecone. Make sure to get in each one and pack it in as much as you can.
  1. Roll your pinecone in your birdseed. Again, make sure you’re getting the seed in each crevice of the pinecone. If you don’t have any birdseed on hand, try raisins, popcorn or cranberries to really fatten up your birds.
  2. Place your pinecone to the side so it can dry a bit, and then start the next one.

If you are using suet cakes, you’ll want to stick it in the microwave for a short amount of time to soften it. Once it’s softened, you’ll be able to use that instead of peanut butter. Then, your yard will be full of neighborhood birds!

Once you’ve got your pinecone bird feeders hung in your yard, don’t forget to take pictures! We want to see your great work. Then send those photos into the Buchheit Photo Barn and you might be featured in an ad or online!