For me, one of life's simple pleasures is catering to the wildlife that frequent our yard. We live in a small, rural town where woodland surrounds our property. It isn't unusual to see wild turkeys, deer and even bears traversing across the lawn. Filling the bird feeders has long been a part of our family routine and a special time I enjoy with my kids. Not too long ago, we were picking, what seemed like bushels, of pine cones out of the yard and we were inspired to create some feeders of our own. These are easy and cheap to make...and a great craft project for kids!

Peanut Butter Pine Cones:  A WILD (Bird) Treat !!!

What you'll need....

15 pine cones*
18 oz. jar off inexpensive creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1 lb. wild birdseed
medium weight string or pipe cleaners
shallow dish or bucket
butter knife, spoon, or fingers
newspaper
(scissors)

*If you don't have any pinecones in your neighborhood, you can purchase them at your local craft store. Also, if your pine cones are closed up, try heating them up in the oven on low. This should open them up and fix the problem.

What to do.... 

Cover your work area with newspaper for easy clean-up. Or even better, make your feeders outside on the lawn and skip this step  altogether!

Pour some of the wild birdseed into your shallow dish or bucket.

Tie a secure knot on the stem of each pinecone using about 12 inches of string or twist the middle part of your pipe cleaner around the stem.

Use a butter knife or spoon to cover each pine cone with about two tablespoons of peanut butter. (We used our fingers. We like to get messy!)

Place each covered pine cone  into the shallow dish or bucket and roll it around until it is completely covered with seed.

Set pine cone aside and repeat the above until all pine cones have been coated and covered.

Now it's time to hang your feeders. If you used the pipe cleaners, you can attach your feeders to trees by twisting the pipe cleaners' ends around the branches. You can do the same with the string and/or you may choose to string several pine cones  together to make vertical wreaths, which we did.

What you'll attract....   

Bluejays, Northern cardinals, squirrels...lots of squirrels...careful where you hang your feeders.

Happy birding!

Written By Jessica Layne

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