[TheForge] bird feeders and bird houses

[terry l. ridder]

hello


with each year getting closer to the grave than the cradle i find i have
taken a keen interest in helping the wildlife around the home as much as
I am able to.

I have had several bird feeders and bird houses made of cedar and plain
pine. nothing painted nor treated, just bare wood. the probelm with this
approach is that the winds in the rural area beat the wood bird feeders
and bird house relentlessly. they just do not last that long.

I am looking for suggestions for metal bird feeders and bird houses.
for bird houses i was thinking something heavy, not likely to be blown
about in the wind. The metal bird feeders that I have tried require
filling often. they all had squirrel protection. i just use metal pie
plates for the critter food.

i was thinking cast iron but ruled it out since i need to be able to
move it about and my legs are not getting any better. :-(

I had thought of taking one of the large logs I have and hollowing it
out in spots and let the birds use the hollows for nests. one of those
wood tools shown in the old swedish videos used to make wooden shoes
would work very good for that.

the farmer up the road from me, suggested slabbing the log and cut
blocks from the core to use to put the log back together. use regular
power tools to create the hollows for the bird house/nest.

he also suggested using a log for the bird feeder.
a six foot log use the top two feet for the bird feeder.
hollow out the top two feet and fashion a ring perch at the bottom of
the two foot hollow. drill holes to allow the seeds to feed the perch.
I will scan his drawing later and post it on my web server.

suggestions, comments, etc.

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>