Building a bird house for the winter by yourself

Build your own bird house - not that hard!

Kategorien: Animals Build Handicrafts Garden Hobby

A bird house brings a lot of joy for young and old, especially in winter. Watching different species in and around the bird house is especially fun from the window. In addition, the feathered visitors are happy if they find a little extra food in your garden in the cold winter. If you do not want to buy the bird house, you can build it yourself - and it is not as difficult as you might think.
© Рустам Носов / Fotolia

These materials are needed
If you have residual wood, you do not have to buy extra wood from the hardware store. Instead, you can use old boards, used roof battens or square timber for building. Furthermore, sufficiently long screws, as well as wood or linseed oil should be available for sealing the wood. Depending on your taste, you can use a few more plants for greening. If you want the birds to come into the garden immediately after building and setting up, you should also get some food.

The building can start
First build a stand from thick squared timber, which will later hold the bird house firmly on the ground. For this purpose four short square timbers are bevelled and screwed together with an additional piece of wood. Then the floor board and the four corner posts are fixed to it, which will later hold the roof. The height of the bird house determines which birds will visit the house.

For example, if you want to exclude large birds such as crows and pigeons, then the house should not be built too high. If you want to serve loose food in addition to the classic titmouse dumplings, you should also put facings on all four sides of the floor. In this way you can effectively prevent too much food falling on the floor.

The final touch
When the basic framework is in place, veneers must also be applied to the upper edges of the pillars. The roof is then attached to these. An angle of inclination between 14 and 16 degrees is optimal so that birds can enter the house and rainwater can drain away easily. In addition, the roof should protrude over the floor slab to protect both the material and the food from moisture.
© bilderhexchen / Fotolia

To ensure that the wood will survive the winter well in the long run, you should seal all parts with oil. If you like it colorful, you can paint the bird house colorful and thus have a nice spot of color in your garden. The bird house looks especially attractive if the roof is planted with a few small plants. So-called thick leaf plants are particularly suitable for this, as they have flat roots.