Hardware/Tools: You'll need a decent saw (circ. Saw works OK), a
drill and wood bit large enough to drill holes for your dowels to fit
tightly into, some wood workers glue, woodscrews, a good quality wood
sealer/waterproofer, and the hanging hardware above. You'll need either
an electric saber saw or a keyhole saw to cut the hole for the cereal
bowl. You'll also need to adapt a clamp device - simple rope/belt with
tension device is fine, to hold during glue drying of top to bottom.
Essentially, the feeder my husband designed and built is a pole shed.
The top and bottom pieces of hard wood stock form the top and bottom of
the box. The top may be also used as a roof, or you may use the two
thinner pieces of 1/2 inch stock, cut approximately 7 inches deep and
screwed into the triangles mentioned above for the roofing support. The
finished feeder is entirely open on all four sides. The cereal bowl is
fitted into a large hole in the feeder bottom. The roof provides shelter
from the sun/rain essential for providing live food. Imagine a little
wooden temple with a hot tub in the center and voila!
Cut the top and bottom first. Drill a starter hole in the bottom, and
cut a 5 and 1/2 inch hole for the bowl. Drill 4 hole 3/4 of the way
through the stock in both the top and bottom pieces for the wooden
dowels to fit into, providing the "temple columns". Screw the
triangles to either end of the top (rectangle) and attach the roof
pieces also with screws to these triangles to form the roof. Place a
little carpenter's glue in the holes for the dowels (the holes obviously
must be only SLIGHTLY larger than the dowels - you want a SNUG fit), and
attach top (with roof) to bottom. Clamp after leveling (or eyeballing
for squareness) until glue dries. Install 4 screw eyes at corners of
roof and form a wire "harness" for hanging. (Simply gather the
loose ends of the four wires and twist them together to form a heavy
loop, use the loop to hang the feeder.) Coat the entire feeder with a
good water proofing (Let this dry thoroughly, BBs don't need chemicals
on top of all the rest of their trouble!) Hang the feeder, place some
meal worms in the cereal bowl, call the BBs and hope for the best. It
took less than 5 minutes for our birds to figure out exactly what this
contraption was. Soon they eagerly came when called during
"re-loading" patiently waiting in a tree until the human
supply persons vacated the area. They use the rim of the bowl for extra
footing. Be absolutely fastidious in keeping the bowl clean - wash
before each reloading.
Good Luck!
Posted with permission from Katherine
Smith.
10/02/02
