National Geographic Kids
We’ve had a productive afternoon. I saw a wonderful video on Facebook that showed a tray made into a hummingbird birdbath. My husband asked, “Do you want to make one?” DUH. :0)
The catch was that he wouldn’t pay attention to the picture I showed him, OR the supply list, OR the directions. Other than that, we were on the same page.
We stopped at Tractor Supply to see if they had the tray. What we found were some rubber heavy-duty oblong tubs. My husband said that that would do, but I was confused. I knew there was a tub that acted as a collector so the water could be recycled by a pump, but he said the TUB would be the bird bath. I gave up and just helped find a pump.
We talked about where to put the bird bath. It would need a water supply and electricity, plus we wanted to be able to see it from at least two places. We ended up deciding to attach it to the deck railings close to the back porch. We MIGHT be able to use an extension cord and plug it into an existing electrical outlet, or it won’t be a huge job to run another line. We also have close access to water. We can see it when sitting either on the porch or the deck, and can see it if we’re standing at the dining area window.
We used wood and angle iron we had in the shop to make a support table for the hummingbird bird bath. Our biggest problem was getting it level, since the deck railing isn’t.
We cut and welded angle iron to attach to the ends of the wood and the strong part of the deck. We cut up a good board we had in the shop to create the ‘table.’ We had to use shims to level things up, since the railing angles down toward the house.
Here you can see the wood attached to the deck railing and the angle iron going down to the floor support of the deck. We painted the angle iron with truck bed paint to keep it from rusting.
Here’s a side view of the ‘table’ and the angle iron supports.
I stood on the ground looking at the deck to get this picture.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’ll tackle the next part of the project – providing electricity to the pump, running hoses, figuring out a receptacle to catch the water in the recycling process, cutting the pipe and drilling it with holes to provide the constant streams of water that act kind of like a sprinkler for the birds to play and bathe in, etc.
Since the tub is deep, I’ll need to find TALL stuff to go into it, to make places for the birds to sit. I’ll look for some greenery and other stuff to add. There is enough space on the railing on either side to maybe have small pots of flowers that might attract the birds.
A LOT of details to figure out and a good amount of work left to do, but I love this idea, even though ours won’t look like the picture. I’ll take pics when we make more progress.
Here is the idea we’re trying to emulate –
YouTube
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