I’m always trying to beat the system. The system being retail prices for something I could make myself. I’ll admit that on several occasions I end up spending more than if I had just bought the item at the store. But this time I think I have a winner.

An internet search turned up some recipes for making birdseed bells and blocks.

note:

• I used my little George Foreman toaster oven to save money on the heating part.
• My homemade bell and block are hanging with just a wire without a hanging cage and are doing just fine. I don’t know what will happen to it when it rains. Fingers crossed.
• I don’t think you have to cook it long as long as it says. I think it is just to dry the egg whites all the way through. You don’t want to roast the seeds. I may even try lowering the temperature down and see. If it doesn’t work out and it falls apart, I’ll just put it on my tray feeder.
• The reason I want the birdseed bells are to slow down the squirrels, chipmunks and starlings. They have to work at it a bit to get a seed so there will be less waste. There is no way the chipmunks and squirrels could ever eat as much as they take. No more free meals!
• The binding ingredient on the commercial birdseed bells says gelatin. I’m going to give that a try, too. Next time I’ll use peanuts in the mix for the woodpeckers.
• Everything including the woodpecker loves the cheapo Walmart Peanut Suet Dough at only $1.19. I don’t think I could make the suet dough cheaper than buying it there but I can for the bird blocks and bells. The large premium bird block with peanuts etc was about $8 to buy (that wasn’t at Walmart as they didn’t have the specialty ones that large.)
• I ended up with a lot of egg yolks and added a bit of butter to my pan and cooked them really slow and set them out for the birds. The starling-like birds went crazy for it. They were actually fighting over it.

The recipe I used follows:

From: Peg, Legend Lake, WI

Materials:

• small terra cotta pots
• microwave-safe plastic wrap or plastic oven bags
• length of firm wire (like coat-hanger)
• birdseed
• 2 egg whites per cup of birdseed

Beat egg whites until white and fluffy, but still liquid. Prepare pots by lining them with the wrap or oven bag( one oven bag will line two pots) Bend the end of the wire that goes into the seed bell into a closed loop.

Mix beaten egg whites and birds seed in bowl until all seed is coated, then spoon the mix into the prepared pots, patting it down firmly. Push the uncoiled end of the wire through center of mix in pot and then out of the drainage hole until looped end rests flat on top of mixture, then push loop slightly into mixture.

Place on an oven shelf set high enough to allow wire to hang free. Cook at 225 degrees for 60-90 minutes. The important things is not to burn the mixture and slow cooking is needed to set it firmly.

Remove from pots when still warm (careful, wire is hot)

HINT: If you use large seed in your mixture, the widest part of the bell which is exposed during cooking will become slightly crumbly. This only happens for a centimeter or two. If you want to avoid this, spoon mixture into pot leaving a few centimeters and mix some seed with another egg white to fill up the last centimeter and cook as usual.

More Hints from Louise, Southern Alabama:

• Six egg whites will hold enough seeds to make 10 bells.
• Terra cotta herb pots made the prettiest bell shapes but didn’t work any better than the small paper cups.
• Aluminum foil works better than plastic - easier to shape to fit in the pots/cups, and easy to peel off the finished bell
• Spraying the foil lined pots/cups with cooking spray worked great, but they peeled off just as easy without it!
• Coat hanger wire was too heavy; lighter weight craft wire was easier to bend, shape, and twist onto the tree limbs. Be sure to form a loop at the end, and bend it parallel to the top of the bell, fill, and sink the loop slightly into the mix. This keeps the wire from pulling out.
• To make big seed blocks for wire suet feeders, just line a oven or microwave rectangular container with aluminum foil, mix your seeds or seed, nut, fruit combo with the beaten egg whites, bake at 225 degrees for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours, and unmold while still warm.