How To: Honey Bird Seed
I have yet to meet someone that doesn't enjoy the occasional bird flitting through their yard. Sure, their chirping at 5am on a Summer Saturday Morning can be irritating. Their droppings around a porch can be frustrating to clean, but the refreshing sight of a little Sparrow zooming across the yard as the temperatures cool is always a joy.
There are always negatives, if we allow ourselves to see them, but there are other ways to manage the problems. Encourage the birds to move away from the porch, and maybe find a white noise machine to drown them out in the summer. There are so many positives that come with encouraging the bird population. Here are a few:
- Education: Do you know how to identify a sparrow? Do you know that many birds’ plumage changes with the season? Which birds migrate south for the winter and which stick around at home? Observing your backyard friends will help you make all kinds of bird discoveries!
- Pest control: Is your backyard being overrun by mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies? Birds help keep the bug population under control.
- Pollination: As awesome as bees are at pollinating, they can’t do it alone. Birds are a big help when it comes to getting the job of pollinating done. Hummingbirds, sunbirds, honeycreepers and honeyeaters are some of the best feathered pollinators around! Get your flowers blooming.
- Bonding: If you've got kids, grandkids, neices or nephews, you can have a new way to connect and bond with them. Have some fun inside making your feed, then get some vitamin D outside enjoying the birds. Laugh about the silliness as the birds play, learn about the kid's likes and dislikes, connect over the sweet innocence of nature.
- Wildlife conservation: As more and more trees are cut down and forests are covered with concrete, natural habitats for birds are disappearing. Setting up a bird friendly backyard garden and providing food and drink for your feathered friends helps with wildlife conservation. You can feel great about doing your part for your local ecosystem.
So, now that you're convinced it's a good idea to attract the birds, here's a fun way to do it!
Honey Bird Seed!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of birdseed
- ½ cup of JM2 honey
- 1 tablespoon of corn starch (optional, this will thicken your mixture and help hold it together)
- 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (optional, this also helps to thicken your mixture)
Materials:
- 6 muffin liners (We like the silicone ones to avoid sticking)
- Alternative option is wax paper and cookie cutters to form shapes
- Medium glass or metal bowl
- Spoon
- Bird feeder (A mesh strainer tied up with baker’s twine, or you can tie the feed shapes on a string like an ornament)
Directions:
- In a bowl combine bird seed and honey. Stir to combine.
- If you’d like a more solid “honey bird seed feed shape” add corn starch and peanut butter. Stir to combine.
- Spoon bird seed mixture into muffin liners, packing firmly.
- Alternative: Spread mixture over wax paper and use cookie cutter to get your shapes (this requires the corn starch and peanut butter). You could also gather the feed into the cutter on the wax paper (you will need to keep it in the cutter if you didn't use the thickening agents).
- Put “honey bird seed feed shapes” into freezer to set. Allow to freeze for at least 30 minutes. Tip: If you make the ornaments, you can simply poke a hole in the shape to tie the string through before freezing.
- Remove “honey bird seed feed shapes” from the muffin liners or cutter, place them in your bird feeder and put outdoors. Store extra “honey bird seed feed shapes” in the freezer.
Tip: If you live in a rainy environment, use a mesh strainer for your bird feeder. Drill holes into the outer ring of the strainer and hang using baker’s twine. The mesh strainer will keep the seeds in but allow the rain to drain out. If you still want to do the ornaments, just hang the strainer below them.