BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

A BIRD FEEDING BOX. This little feeding box is intended for the small binds which come to the garden. It can be hung, by means of thin rope, from the branch of a tree, or from any other suitable support. Packing case wood, about three-eighths of an inch thick, may be used for it. Cut the front and back pieces to the sizes given in diagram A. Mark out the shape of the opening B on each piece, and use your compasses for setting out the curved top. Cut out the openings with a pad-saw and smooth the edges with glasspaper. The sides are seven and a half inches wide and five inches in height. With your plane, bevel the top edge of each piece, as shown at C, to the same angle as the sloping top parts of the front and back. Nail these parts to the sides, and then nail on the baseboard. This is 15 inches long and eight inches wide, the little house being fixed in the middle so that an equal amount of the baseboard projects in front of each, opening. For the roof you will need two pieces of wood ten inches long—one piece six Inches wide, the other five and fiveeighths inches wide. Nail on the shorter piece D first, and then plane the top edge at an angle, as shown at B, so that the other, part of the roof fits nicely in place. The top edge of this must also be planed at an angle, as shown, after it is nailed on. Now take a piece of thick brass wire four inches long and, with a pair of

round-nosed pliers, form an eye at each end as shown at F. Bend the wire to the shape shown at G, and screw it across the top of the roof, as in the first diagram. Give the finished box a epat of creosote or green paint. Sprinkle a few crumbs or small seeds on the board in front of each opening before hanging up the box. If you do this two or three times a day you will have plenty of feathered visitors to the little house. The Hut Carpenter.