Pinecone Fat Feast A Little bit of cooking to help the birds

This is a fabulous idea to help feed the birds and its great fun, great for the children as well as the adults and combines a bit of exercise and foraging with a bit of home cooking and moulding.

You can use up any leftover Seed Mix you may have or use new, it's up to you.

Let's get started...

First of all, we're going to need a few open Pinecones. This is a great excuse to go for a walk, take your binoculars if you like. Try and find some fully opened cones, the bigger the better. Don't worry you can only find closed ones, pop them in the oven for an hour and they'll open. Whilst you're on your walk lookout for Treecreepers, Goldcrests, Crossbills and Siskins, they all love Pinewood habitats.

Once you have selected your opened Pinecones, put them to one side and gather the other ingredients together.

This is what you'll need:

• Suet (amount depends on how many cones you have, 1/2 a cup per cone is about right) you can use Suet Pellets of any flavour, if you like.


• Seed Mixes, any flavour or combination can be used.


• Any Dried Fruit, if you have it, if not it doesn't matter.


• Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds, Niger Seed etc - any of these can be used as additional ingredients, the more variety the better. You could have different flavour cones.


• If you have any Mealworms, they could go in too.


• Some string

Let's get cooking!

Phase 1:

On a low heat, melt the suet in a large pan, be careful and don't over fill the pan. Once the Suet has melted and is runny, turn off the heat and start on the next phase.

Phase 2:

In a bowl, combine your Seed Mix with any of the other ingredients you have, remember you could have a couple of bowls with different mixes in, that way you could monitor the birds to see which they prefer.

Phase 3:

The Suet should have cooled a bit by now and become thicker, add this to the Seed Mixes you have prepared and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Phase 4:

The Fun Bit...

Tie lengths of string to the top of the pine cones, different lengths for hanging, then press and mould as much of the cooled seed and suet mixture into the open scales of the cone. Don't worry about being too neat, the birds won't mind and even if it looks a little messy the birds will still enjoy tucking into the easier to reach parts.

Phase 5:

Hang the completed Cones from your Bird-table, Feeding Station or from trees and bushes in the garden, wait and watch.

Which birds will you attract with your Pinecone Fat Feasts? Let us know.

Happy cooking, happy birding!