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One of the most natural ways to feed birds and other wildlife is through the use of a pine cone feeder. Pine cones are the woody part of a plant created after the plant flowers. Pine cone seeds grow in layers from a center and are encased in a tough seed covering to protect it. Birds and other animals are used to finding food value in a pine cone and will often check them rather than being suspicious. Because pine cones are natural, they add little human footprint on the environment, decaying naturally. Use these tips on how to make a pine cone feeder and use it to make the birds and wildlife of your neighborhood healthier and willing to visit your yard.

Where to Find a Large Pine Cone

Plant a pine tree, they grow pine cones. That sounds simple, but nothing will delight a bird or wildlife in your environment than native pine cones as food. Search your neighborhood for pine cones and pick them up, often owners rake them up and put them in yard waste to remove them. Remove any detritus or soil from the pine cone with a small brush.

Prepare a Peanut Butter Based Mix to Fill Pine Cone Feeders

Once you have found a nice sized pine cone, prepare a peanut butter base to fill in the airy holes in the pine cone with additional food. Use a natural brand of peanut butter because it is oilier and thus somewhat thinner and easier to use and contains less artificial preservatives. Chop up dried fruits, leftover vegetables, stale nuts and sesame seed, old corn meal and bird seed, remnants of jam jars into the peanut butter. This will clean up your cupboards and reduce your costs in feeding the birds and wildlife using food they find scrounging your yard and gardens.

If you plan to hang your pine cone, tie a piece of string around the center and knot it, leaving additional length to loop like a Christmas ornament.

Fill the pine cone using a knife to scoop and fill in the empty spaces.

Dip Pine Cone Feeders in Suet to Make them Last Longer and Easier to Store

Buy and melt suet from your local feed, hardware or garden supply store or make your own from scraps of fat scraps from the butcher. Warning, melting fat scraps stinks especially if there is a lot of meat left on the fat. Once the suet is melted, using a pair of tongs, dip your filled pine cone in the mixture quickly than turn upside down on wax paper until cool and hardened. You can follow up a dip in suet immediately with a roll in bird seed to add another layer of food, again, set upside down on wax paper until hardened.

Using a Pine Cone Feeder in Your Yard

To feed ground feeding birds such as towhee, flicker and pigeons, place pine cone feeders in a scratch box which is an area bare of grass and not used for gardening, i.e. you don't mind if it looks messy.

To use at a squirrel station or for large birds like flickers, pound a large nail through a post and let the end hang out. Then press the pine cone onto the nail to let the animals and birds feed.

Hang the pine cone bird feeders using the string tied on before filling. Loop the strings around a tree branch, loop of chain link fence or from a bird feeder hanger.

Make sure that when you place your pine cone feeders they are visible from your home so you can enjoy the visits of wildlife animals and birds to your home.

Learn more about this author, Sheri Fresonke Harper.
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