Have a sustainable Christmas and make these bird feeder decorations as presents

At this cold time of year, it's very important to keep feeding your garden birds to help them survive the winter. This year, why not make these festive bird feeders for your own garden and to give as Christmas presents?

They are easy to make and so pretty- and the birds will appreciate them most of all!

Ingredients

 100g plain flour

120ml warm water

Three tablespoons honey

One 12g package of unflavoured gelatin

Approximately 300g of bird food (why not buy from Vine House Farm and support the Wildlife Trusts!)

Dried fruit for decoration

Moulds

Nonstick cooking oil

 

Method

• Start by mixing the gelatin and water together in a mixing bowl until the gelatin is fully dissolved.
• Whisk in the honey and flour until the mixture is nice and thick. If you think it needs to be a bit thicker, stick it in the fridge for a short time to cool it down.
• Stir the bird seed into the thickened mixture. It will begin to get quite tough to stir but make sure it is all evenly mixed!
• When it's all well stirred, spray your moulds with nonstick vegetable cooking oil and clingfilm too for big moulds. This will make them easier to get out of the moulds when set.
• Put some dried fruit in the bottom of the moulds for decoration.
• Spoon the seed mixture into the moulds on top of the decorative dried fruit, making sure it is well pressed down into the mould.
• Pop the moulds into the fridge for half an hour or until set.
• Turn the moulds out on to some greaseproof paper and leave the decorations to dry for a few days, turning them over every so often.
• Hang them up in the garden and enjoy watching the birds!

You can download a pdf guide to print off at home and have a go yourself.