This is one of the few years we will not have hair sheep shedding out on the farm and for the past 20 years i have watched the birds carefully pick and use the bits of wool in their nests. If you check the nests in the trees, you will also see that winter horse hair (Caleb’s the favorite, as its longer) is also a clear winner!

I decided i needed a fun project that would help the birds, maybe give me some very interesting bird photography and ideally would cost very little! I sent hubby out to get some willow trimmings and make in the best way a wonky creation indeed.. I weaved in bird perches of different types, one small straight, one big curved and one small flat but curved.

Its not nearly as pretty as some of the perfectly round willow balls i have seen online but i needed it for function more then form, i am not selling it lol, i just need it to do its job and i weaved in enough extra crossing and the middle so i could have sections and made both the top and bottom narrow to help hold things and that worked perfect!

In the bottom, i put a layer of pulled wool and then because this is a narrow point, i cut up untreated organic wheat straw into finer smaller piece and layered it in with tiny fine nest building twig tips, this has a small bird landing on that round red perch!

The middle is stuffed with loads of hand pulled and fluffed brown sheep’s raw wool its the perfect finish for the cup of the nest for softer finishing for reduced egg breakage and extra warmth for the chicks, it also has the biggest sideways landing perch and the one that is most likely to give me the best chance at a great photo or two with the birds with a mouth full of nesting fluff.. The next layer above has the longer grasses and straw for the bigger edge building

The top inside narrows into a perfect wool holder space and i decided why not and pulled and weaved the wool between the five big main willow stems.

The main things that will be used and added to this over the next days and weeks

• Long narrow dried grasses
• Chopped Dried Non-sprayed straw
• Cattail fluff
• Winter horse hair (please not that the horses have not needed any medical treatments)
• dropped small feathers from the bird flock pens
• Raw sheep’s wool
• moss
• lichen
• loads of tiny tips of wee branches weaved in 

Is there anything else you think you would find on a small farm or in a garden zone 5a in northern climate that should be on that list, i can’t use my dog or cat hair as they are treated, ticks are out already! I might still have some milk weed fluff collected from last fall but i think i have used it all up.

I need to get more crushed hair boiled egg shells out this week and set up a mudding spot by next week for the birds and the bees, but that is a another post.

Remember to never use dryer lint or human hair or treated pet hair!

What do you see your birds using in their nests? I always see sheep’s wool and horse hair in mine 🙂