These ice cube bird feeders are SO PRETTY, and they’re incredibly easy to make! Simply add birdseed and a bit of water to a silicone mold, insert a twine hanger, and wait for them to freeze!
These bird feeder ice ornaments are a unique and beautiful way to offer food to the birds in your neighbourhood! We love watching wildlife in our backyard, so we’ve made a few different bird feeders over the years. It’s such a fun winter craft!
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DIY Birdseed Ice Ornaments
Equipment:
- Clothespins (1 for each ornament)
- Baking sheet (optional; to support the mold)
Check Out The Video Tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Fill the mold with bird feed and cranberries
- Add birdseed to a compartment of a large silicone ice cube tray. Fill it between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way.
- Continue filling the compartments with seeds and cranberries.We made some ornaments with fine seed, some with larger birdseed, some with only cranberries, and some with a combination of cranberries and birdseed.
Step 3: Add hangers to each compartment
- Cut 12 inch long pieces of twine - one for each section of your mold. (We needed 6 pieces for our mold).
- Tie the twine into ornament hangers with a knot on the end.
- Push the knot of the twine hangers into each section of the mold. Make sure they're not pushed all the way to the bottom. (You can use the spoon or a stir stick to push the knot down, if needed.)
- Add clothespins onto the twine to keep the loops in place. Try to center the hangers as best you can.
Step 4: Add water and freeze
- Pour water into each section, making sure that you don't completely fill them. If the clothespins are touching the water in the mold they'll freeze to your ornaments.
- Freeze the ice cube bird feeders overnight. Because of their large size, they take longer to freeze than regular ice cubes.
- Unmold the ice ornaments once they are completely frozen. With a silicone mold the cubes should be easy to remove by pushing on the bottom.
- Your ice cube bird feeders are complete!Hang them outside for the birds to enjoy!
Helpful Tips:
- You can also add the twine hanger in after you’ve poured the water. Do whatever seems easiest to you!
- If you don’t want to hang all the ice cube bird feeders at one time, store the rest in the freezer. They may get a bit of ice buildup on them after a week or so, but it should easily brush or rinse off.
What can I put in my bird feeder ice ornaments?
We used two different types of birdseed and cranberries for our ice cube bird feeders, but there are a lot of other items you can add in, such as:
- Fresh fruit like apple slices, pears, blueberries, or grapes
- Dried fruit such as raisins or currants
- Raw peanuts
- Sunflower seeds (especially black-oil sunflower seed!) or pumpkin seeds
What molds work well to make ice cube bird feeders?
Silcone molds are the ideal molds for making these ice ornaments, because they make it really easy to remove the ornaments after they’re frozen. You can use large ice cube trays, like we did, or silicone cupcake liners.
But if you don’t have silicone molds, you can make the ornaments in a regular ice cube tray (using only small seeds), a muffin tin, or a mini bundt cake pan. You may need to put some hot water on the back of the metal tins or plastic ice cube mold in order to remove the ornaments.
How long do these bird feeder ice ornaments last?
This will all depend on the weather in your area! The cubes will stay together as long as the weather is below freezing. You’ll lose your pretty decoration once the temperature rises, but as the cubes melt the birds (and squirrels, let’s face it!) can pick the seeds and fruit off the ground.
Where should I hang the ice cube bird feeders?
The ice ornaments need to be hung close to other branches. This will allow the birds to eat from the ice cube bird feeders as they’re perched on a nearby branch!
These bird feeder ice ornaments are fun outside decorations that look so pretty sparkling in the sun! Learn about what food the birds in your area enjoy and add it to these ice cube bird feeders! These simple ice ornaments would also be a fun classroom activity.
Here’s even more DIY bird feeder ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon |  Barnes and Noble |  Books- A- Million |  Indiebound |  Indigo |  Amazon Canada
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