Birds are creatures with very unique habits when it comes to what they eat. They will usually fly all over in the search of food that is tasty and full of nutrients.
If you notice a lot of birds flying around your yard and want to offer them a little treat, then hanging apples around for the birds to munch on is something you can do.
Most people won’t spend too much time thinking of how to make birds happy and will just resort to a simple bird feeder full of bird seeds. Although this is a great way of providing food for birds, why not make things a little more interesting for them?
Hanging apples that birds can find and then munch on will be a lot more interesting for them.
Tips on How To Hang Apples for Birds Safely
1. Cut Apples in Half
The first thing you will have to do is get some fresh apples and cut them in half one by one.
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Once you finish cutting apples in half, you will go ahead and dig out the core of each individual apple, leaving just a hollow spot in the middle of each fruit.
You will fill the hollow part of the apple with bird seeds at a point in the future.
You will also have to make sure that you are using clean apples and if they aren’t clean, you should wash them thoroughly beforehand. If the apples are dirty, they might have some parasites on them that would infect the birds and make them get ill.
A quick rinse before starting will usually be enough to make sure you will have clean apples to use for this project.
Once the cores are removed, you can move to the next step.
From this point on you will have a few options to move forward. You can either go the easier route and just stuff the apples with bird seeds, or you can think out of the box and go for some other treats.
If you want to go for some other treats, then it is important to use something that the birds will like to eat. This will depend on the type of birds you have coming to your yard. You don’t even have to fill the empty cores with treats. You can, instead, cover the apples with some other ingredients that the birds will love.
But let’s get on the easy route this time and maybe I`ll make a different article on what else you can add to hanging apples.
2. Stuff Bird Seed Into The Cut Apples
So the next obvious step will be to just stuff those apples with bird seeds.
You will place the bird seeds inside the hollow area located inside the apple. You will first have to place the seeds inside the apple until it is full and then use something solid to stuff the clump so it doesn’t fall right off when you hang the apples.
Bird seeds have a great quality of almost instantly attracting wild birds, meaning that it won’t take long for some birds to start flying over your years and over the hanging apples.
The seeds should be properly placed inside the apple so that they won’t fall off even when the apple is moving slowly.
3. Put in Fridge for 1-2 Hours
After placing the bird seeds inside the apple, the next step will involve putting them on a small sheet pan. You will have to spread them out on the pan and then put them in the fridge to cool off.
This will make the apples become firm while also making the bird seeds stick better to the apple.
One of the most important things you will have to keep in mind when hanging apples for birds will be to keep the seeds inside the apples until the birds actually find them. Else, they will fall on the ground and will get picked up by squirrels. Everything should be as firm and as compact as possible so that a little wind won’t ruin all of your hard work and effort.
4. Go for a Higher Spot
You will also have to figure out the perfect place for the apples.
Although tree branches might seem like the perfect place for these apples, you will have to avoid strong branches, as squirrels can climb on those and reach these apples, and you surely don’t want this.
If you think a stronger branch is the perfect place to hang your apple, then at least try to use a longer rope, so that the apples are hanging halfway between the ground and the branch.
Before actually preparing the apples, you will first find the perfect spot for them.
Otherwise, the apples might go bad before the birds will actually reach them.
Conclusion
These are the basic steps required to hang apples for birds.
You will have to have a lot of patience, use only fresh apples, and also go for organic bird seeds if you want the birds to keep coming back to these treats.
You will also want to look for the perfect place for the apples to be hanged, to make sure the birds can reach them, while other creatures like squirrels can’t.
