Self Dispensing Bird Seed Feeder (plastic Free!)

I was trying to find a good seed bird feeder because I had to keep refilling our bird table daily, and all the ones at the garden centre were made of plastic.

To make this you need an old bottle that you like, something to use as the seed tray and a few bits of hardware.

It's very straight forward and only took me an hour or so to put together.

As with all glass in the garden, make sure you put it somewhere NOT in full sun, due to the risk of magnification of rays of light causing burn damage to plants or fences etc

1x old bottle, cleaned and label removed

1x seed tray, I used an old candle holder but you could use anything small that has a bit of a dip in it

Bird seed of your choice!

1x eye bolt

1x threaded rod

1x connector for threaded rod

locking nuts

washers

(I used 6mm for all my hardware but use whatever is easy for you to get hold of)

carbide tungsten drill bit

Metal hacksaw

clamps, workbench, wrench are all helpful.

Clean your bottle inside & out. I used hot soapy water to soak off the label and scraped it off with a wooden spatula, and then to get rid of the stubborn label glue I used HG sticky stuff remover because it is amazing. It's a solvent so use in a well ventilated area.

Also clean your seed tray, and mark the centre point on the bottom of each.

You will need an electric drill and some carbide tungsten tipped drill bits. I got some for about £10 at Screwfix. Put your bottle/seed tray securely on a workbench, and clamp in place. Make sure the surface is wet by pouring a little bit of water on every so often. This keeps it all cool and stops cracking.

Set the drill on low speed and don't push - let the drill do the work. Stop every 30 seconds or so to make sure nothing is getting too hot. It will probably take a couple of minutes to drill through. Taking your time is well worth it when you end up with a really neat hole.

You are aiming for this sequence of hardware:

Eye bolt > [bottle drilled hole] > connector > locking nut > threaded rod > [out bottle neck] > locking nut > washer > [seed tray] > washer > locking nut

It can all get a bit fiddly, but what I did was put a locking nut on the threaded rod first, leaving half the length of the connector, then attach the connector. This set up gives you resistance which allows you to attach and detach the eye bolt for easy refilling of seed.

I then put the rod inside the bottle to measure the length I needed. You are aiming for the seed tray to sit about 1.5/2 cm away from the bottle neck.

Once I knew where I was aiming for I put a locking nut up this point. To make this quicker I cheated by putting the rod in the drill and holding the nut with a wrench - I'm lazy!

Then add a washer, your seed tray, another washer and your final locking nut. Double check you are happy with your sizing before trimming the rod.

Nearly there! First check that everything fits together nicely. Then, take out your hardware again by disconnecting the eyebolt.

Fill your bottle up with seeds of your choice. A funnel is helpful, or a rolled up piece of paper at a push.

Then put your eye bolt through the hole at the bottom of the bottle, and jiggle the connector end of the rod through the seeds to meet one another. A few twists and it is assembled! Do this inverted so that you don't spill the seeds everywhere.

Lastly, keep everything level and clamp your set up so you can trim the rod using a hacksaw (if you haven't already, its up to you whether you find this easier before or after adding seeds).

Finally, quickly turn the whole thing so your eye bolt is at the top. Seed will spill out into the tray and then stop.

You hang this directly on a hook if you have one, or like I did here you can use some twine or wire to hang it.

Birds will be happy with their beautiful new food dispenser, and you will be happy at not having to put fresh seed out every day, enjoy!

(p.s. the added bonus of this is getting to drink some lovely beverages out of pretty bottles in order to make more...!)