Bird Seed Eggs

What a fun project! My mother gave me an article on food on the fly from a Taste of Home Magazine, back in December. I checked the ingredients and I had everything I needed to make these with the girls. The original recipe called for your favorite cookie cutter shape. So with my girls we made these great bird feeders for the birds. We hung them on the trees in the front yard. It did not take long for the birds to find them as we had just gotten some snow. Within a little over a week they were gone. 

As I was looking through another magazine, that sold out door gardening stuff, I noticed there were bird seed eggs sold by the dozen. Neat! Wow, for the price I could buy all the ingredients for making much much more! What a great project for my girl scout troop to do! After much deliberation on how to make the egg shapes, I finally came up with using old plastic eggs from past Easter time baskets. I only had to find the boxes in our storage area! Then dig through them to find the plastic eggs. 

So I proceeded to try this with the girls scouts using the plastic eggs during a meeting. Well, I only had 4 girls make them at that meeting, as it turned out to be a little tougher and messier than I had anticipated! They turned out great despite the mess and time it took! So, I had to come up with a better system of doing them. So the next meeting I had the rest of the girls make theirs. They had a great time making them...still made a mess cause sticky bird seed is interesting to work with!  

What you need:   (makes approx 5-6 eggs or 4 - 4in cookie cutter shapes)

• Ribbon - cut in to 12 in long segments for each egg/ornament you are making
• 1/2 oz unflavored gelatin powder(2 envelopes of Knox)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups of birdseed
• rubber bands to hold plastic eggs together
• plastic eggs or 4 inch cookie cutters 
• cooking spray
• 
  
  
  

Mix gelatin with boiling water in medium to large bowl, until well dissolved. Stir in birdseed till well coated. If it is to watery then add more seed. It should be a little stiff but also sticky!

Spray inside of plastic eggs lightly with cooking spray. Spoon in the each side of egg the seed mixture, place the knotted end of ribbon in the middle of the egg, then, firmly squeezes the halves together making sure the ribbon stays in the egg. Use rubber bands to hold halves together, otherwise they will come apart. Let set for a few hours, to allow the gelatin to set, then carefully open the egg to coax out the bird seed. Let set for a day or two before hanging on trees! Sit back and watch the birds enjoy their food!

Now after the girls had made them, we left them to dry in the basement where I have the meetings...I forgot about them! About 4 days went by and I went back down to basement to do something and was overcome with a terrible smell, what in the world could that smell be? I looked over and saw all the eggs still together. Opened on up and it was green with mildew and mold. Needless to say the plastic eggs and seed all went into the trash. I ended up making them all for the girls before the next meeting. Of course I had to tell them what had happened and they all said....OUUUUU, YUK! And then proceeded to laugh!

Staying Positive in Rock Tavern, NY

Laurie