1. Home
  2. Pottery Crafts
  3. ceramic bird houses

ceramic bird houses

Last night I was watching The Antique's Road Show on PBS channel and someone had a pot that had a hole in the side and when I saw it I had the idea of using pottery as bird houses.

I don't personally want any but I thought it was a good enough idea I wanted to share it.

You could find someone who does welding to build a stand to fit the shape of the pot or just put it in a tree.

The pots with lids could enable you to clean it out or add straw for the next years birds.

If you have pots with handles they can be hung from high branches where cats can't get at them.

Someone might have already thought of this idea but I didn't want to spend a lot of time looking through old posts.

Reply to
David Croft
Loading thread data ...

A fellow potter has perfected the "bird bottle" which attaches to a tree. They are exquisite and fetch a fair price. She tells me her bottles are loosely modeled after those crafted around two hundred years ago and will withstand weather much better than wood. She has several in her own back yard. The birds, or their offspring, return each year to the same one.

I'm sure the same principle can be applied to the bat houses that are scattered throughout the northwestern US that I've seen. If a potter were to throw or handbuild a bottle or box and attach it somehow to a tree with the mouth facing downward, that would attract bats.

I saw in Costa Rica a bird that wove a sac in which to drop its eggs. I've thought it would be fun to throw a pot and mimmic one of those nest sacs and send it to my friend and see if it could attract that kind of bird.

Diego

Reply to
Diego

Reply to
D Kat

Reply to
David Croft

My current teacher showed us how she does bird houses the other day. She throws a closed form with a squat, spherical body (2-3 inches high, 4-5 inches in diamter). The closed neck of the piece is about 4-5 inches long before it is looped back on itself to provide a place to hang from a string.

Once the clay is leather hard, she makes the entry hole and decorates with stamps and sprigs.

She also makes smaller versions as christmas tree ornaments.

-Steve

Reply to
Steve Christensen

We ought to check this idea out first. Some think that ceramic birdhouses overheat in the sun, "baking" the baby birds. I can't say if this is true, but certainly, fired ceramic has little insulation effect -- i.e. it's cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

Marco

Reply to
Marco Milazzo

Try putting old teapots, spout facing down for drainage, in your hedgerows ....... works wonders !!

Reply to
AndWhyNot

what a wonderful idea! but what kind of bird looks for a nest right near the ground? i don't know if we have any like that here! i'm sure the local cat might like it....

great use of "oooops" tea pots!

steve

steve graber

Reply to
Slgraber

Of course you could hang them from something, attach them to a tree somehow, but i am not so sure how good an idea ceramic birdhouses really are. When i touch the pots which are standing in my window, they get incredibly hot in the sun. I am afraid a bird might build a nest in it and the young will be cooked the next time the sun shines. Since it is not a natural material for birds, they can't know that. I would stick with wooden birdhouses.

M> what a wonderful idea! but what kind of bird looks for a nest right near the

-- Monika Schleidt snipped-for-privacy@schleidt.org

formatting link

Reply to
Monika Schleidt

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.