Feeding Our Feathered Friends: Rainbow Ice Bird Feeders

The creation of these ice bird feeders was an evolution of sorts with lots of trial and error. We were happy with the outcome though and our feathered friends seem to be too! 

It has been such a pleasure on these cold white days to watch the bluejays and chickadees frolicking and feasting in our backyard.

These were pretty simple to make and a joy to have mother nature's frosty co-operation in the creation of them!

To make you will need

helium quality balloons

6 round foil cake tins

food coloring 

water

bowls

full tins of beans (for weight)

time ;)

To begin:

Take the food coloring and drop some drops (what ever color you want you ice orb to be) into your balloon. 

Next fill your balloon with water, place it in a bowl (to keep its rounded shape) and put them outside into the frigid air to freeze! If it is as cold where you are as where we are (-30!!) it should freeze full over night. 

You can then peel off your balloon and "unveil " your lovely ice orbs!

I wasn't sure what to do with them at this point...

but I was smitten and determined to give them a purpose!

So, here's what came of that...

project bird feeder!

For this part fill your cake tins with water and food coloring.
Place a bowl inside the center of the tin and weigh it down with a full food tin.
Set outside to freeze.

Once the water is fully frozen, remove your food tins and fill the bowls with hot water. 

Allow the bowls to warm up until they can slip out of the ice.

Slide your ice disks out of the cake tins.

Pour cold water over your ice orb and gently place your ice disk on top. The middle of the disk will be very thin and break up a bit in the very center, this is fine. Simply add a bit more cold water and snow into the center and press down to secure the orb and disk together.

Allow it to freeze for a couple of hours.

Once it is frozen...

add your birdseed!

Now you are ready for the best part of all ~ the bird watching!

The Bluejay 
By Emily Dickinson

No brigadier throughout the year
So civic as the jay.
A neighbor and a warrior too,
With shrill felicity

Pursuing winds that censure us
A February day,
The brother of the universe
Was never blown away.

The snow and he are intimate;
I 've often seen them play
When heaven looked upon us all
With such severity,

I felt apology were due
To an insulted sky,
Whose pompous frown was nutriment
To their temerity.

The pillow of this daring head
Is pungent evergreens;
His larder — terse and militant —
Unknown, refreshing things;

His character a tonic,
His future a dispute;
Unfair an immortality
That leaves this neighbor out.

For the love of our feathered friends,