What can be better than a pine cone pulled off a tree in nature, then hung back up while loaded with beef fat or peanut butter with a combination of seeds or insects mixed throughout.
Pine cone bird feeders are beneficial to wild birds since they almost certainly contain a substantial amount of protein. Seed-eating birds devour pine cones, but a stuffed pine cone will attract even more birds. You may prevent it from turning bad by hanging it in a tree at a cooler temperature.
Pine cone bird feeders are safe and beneficial if maintained properly, and will provide a healthy protein source for local birds.
Birds can consume conventional peanut butter out of a jar, although this time you are smothering the peanut butter into the crevices of a pine cone found in nature. Assemble a bird superfood by rolling dried mealworms in additional nuts and rolling the mixture in seeds.
Pine cones are a great alternative to peanut butter for feeding birds, but the former are still useful.
Pine cone bird feeders can be easily and cheaply produced at home, therefore I wouldn’t advocate purchasing these.
If you must use a bracket, the ideal way to hang a bird feeder is from a tree branch using a stuffed pine cone.
The Clark’s nutcracker, pine grosbeak, pine siskin, pine warbler, Steller’s jay, woodpeckers, chickadees, and titmouse could all be interested in a suet-stuffed pine cone.
The White-breasted Nuthatch and the Orange-crowned Warbler are the birds most likely to frequent the peanut butter pine cone bird feeder.
Contents
Good if stuffed with nutritious food
Don’t get me wrong; I fully expect that wild birds will profit greatly from eating loaded pine cones.
To begin with, normally created exclusively at home stuffed pine cones would use a rendered beef fat to allow all birds to eat it, especially in winters – while peanut butter stuffed pine cones would see a lot of use.
Beef fat and peanut butter aren’t the only healthy ingredients that will be mixed with these pine cones; there are many more where those came from.
You’d get some protein from the peanut butter and meat fat from the peanuts, and you could get even more protein from the rolled-up seed mixtures.
Heating the beef suet at home allows us to add other ingredients to the liquid fat only after it has cooled, allowing the suet to cure in the refrigerator.
Seeds, crushed peanuts, or dried mealworms can all be used to cover this greasy white material after it’s done, but most people opt for seeds due to its low maintenance.
Your objective is to include the seeds into the beef fat or peanut butter, while some people like to simply roll up the seeds on the sticky outside layer only; however, if you do that, the birds may stop eating once the seeds are gone.
Pine cone bird feeders eliminate the need for the messy and time-consuming cleanup required of traditional metal suet feeders.
Pine cones what their used to
Pine cones are a great choice for a bird feeder because many species of birds use them as a source of food while foraging in the treetops.
The seeds of pine cones can be found on the upper side scales, which are a popular food source for birds in the wild. To attract birds, fill a pine cone with peanut butter or beef fat and hang it from a tree branch.
Birds only eat the seeds inside pine cones, therefore it’s important to only collect whole, still-hanging pine cones and avoid those that have fallen to the ground or are broken.
This pine cone bird feeder is similar to what the birds are used to, but it can still be hung from a bracket or bird feeder pole.
Pine cones can be used as anchors for hanging bird feeders from trees. If you want to hang a pine cone feeder from the ceiling, you should probably use two strings of equal length instead of just one, because the pine cone will be too shaky if it is allowed to swing too freely.
Homemade suet of this kind can quickly get rancid in hot weather, so save it for the cooler months or the winter.
Accessible to many species
There is an abundance of birds that feed exclusively or primarily on tree buds, tree bark, and pine cones.
Many common backyard birds would benefit from beef fat stuffed pine cone bird feeders, provided the fat is easily accessible and the pine cone hanging placement is visible.
Pine Siskins, Pine Grosbeaks, and Pine Warblers (all with “pine” in their names) will flock to pine cones loaded with beef fat, as will Clark’s Nutcrackers and, if they are around, Steller’s Jays.
You can’t expect your peanut butter-stuffed pine cone bird feeder to be devoured by every species of bird because not all birds eat nuts.
To be fair, I can’t tell for sure that birds who don’t eat nuts won’t stop by anyhow, and if they do, they probably won’t eat anything but the rolled-up seeds on the outside.
A pine cone bird feeder, with peanut butter as its main ingredient, may attract any of the aforementioned species because many of these birds naturally consume pine cones in the wild.
In addition, numerous species of birds, such as woodpeckers, chickadees, and titmice, will likely be there.
Few downsides to it
To be completely forthright, this is normally where I mention drawbacks, but I really don’t think you have anything to worry about when putting together your own pine cone bird feeder.
However, before attempting to manufacture your own beef-fat or peanut-butter stuffed pine cones at home, you should check to see that all of the ingredients still have a long expiration date.
Quick spoilage of homemade suet, which any pine cone prepared from beef fat would be, is a common problem in the summer and other hot seasons. A pine cone loaded with peanut butter will also stay longer, despite the fact that it won’t fare well in the heat.
While store-bought suet and the occasional suet pine cone bird feeder may be specially engineered to withstand high temperatures, homemade suet recipes often fail to account for this factor.
If you want to preserve your packed pine cones from getting too hot and sticky, but you can’t get them out of the humidity, hang your bird feeder in the shade, preferably beneath a tree.
Feeding wild birds pine cones, whether homemade or purchased, still requires attention to hygiene, therefore any cones showing indications of decay should be discarded.
Conclusion
Have no fear; the pine cone bird feeders we have in our backyards are loaded with wholesome, protein-rich fare for the birds.
The quality of store-bought or homemade stuffed pine cones might vary.
Because commercial manufacturers of pine cone bird feeders tend to be stingy with their components, making your own feeder at home is a preferable option for wild birds.
To attract more birds, you could use a beef fat pine cone, but if you want to try something different, why not stuff a pine cone with peanut butter instead?
In either case, the pine cone will be smeared with beef fat or peanut butter and wrapped in seed mixtures to create a high-protein treat for birds.
A pine cone hung back up on the tree from which it was retrieved may be rapidly devoured, but if hanging out in the open from a bird feeder pole, it can be beneficial for the birds.
Pine cone feeders are easy to make and may be hung from any tree, not just pine trees; in fact, they can even be hung from a simple bracket instead of a tree branch.
Since pine cone bird feeders are easily accessed by many typical backyard birds, you may expect to see a large number of birds enjoying your backyard when one is placed there.
