A New Peanut Feeder

This is the current array of feeders outside The Diary's house:

1 - new design peanut feeder Mark 339BZ36

2 - shop-bought peanut feeder, swings around in gales, very disconcerting for chaffinches

3 - Fray Bentos individual kidney pudding tin adapted as fat feeder

4 - peanut feeder Mark 562A3A for tits and siskins only - see earlier post here

5 - thin peanut feeder - for pensioners on a low budget as the peanuts are used slowly

The new peanut feeder Mark 339BZ36 is designed to stay stable in high winds and to avoid the problem many shop-bought feeders have - that, because they are flat-bottomed, soggy peanuts get caught in the corners and go moldy. The tits also like it because they can show off by hanging upside down from the conical base.

The feeder is built from 6mm square galvanised iron mesh bought as a 90cm x 60cm sheet from a Homebase garden centre. It's fixed to the post using steel strip held at the back with a size 8 nut and bolt.

Anyone wishing to build one can print this template and use it to cut out the wire mesh. C is the centre of an arc such that A is the width of the main sheet - on the one pictured, A was 16cm and the radius of the arc, R, was 8cm. The larger R is, the more pointed the conical base, and the longer B is, the more nuts the feeder will hold.