How to Make a Tea Cup Bird Feeder

In my last blog post I talked about one of the ways I deal with garden burnout is by doing something creative for the garden. This is a fun, quick project that is creative and will bring lots of activity to your garden. You might even have most, if not all, of the supplies on hand already for this project. Let’s get started!

The Supplies Needed to Make a Tea Cup Bird Feeder

• Tea cup and saucer 
• 3/4” wood dowel 48” long
• Outdoor paint for the wood dowel (You can use outdoor spray paint or I use DecoArt Patio Paint which is outdoor craft paint found in most craft supply stores)
• 3/4” PVC pipe 6” – 8” long
• Outdoor adhesive (I like to use E6000)
• Birdseed to fill the feeder and enjoy watching the birds

Gathering the Supplies

Most of the supplies needed for this project can be found at your local hardware store or you may be lucky and already have the items on hand.

The star of the project and could be the most challenging to find will be the tea cup and saucer. These can be purchased at yard sales, thrift stores or even Amazon carries them. Don’t limit yourself and get creative. You could use a coffee mug you are no longer using and find a small plate or saucer. Anything can be used, just use your imagination. You just need a dish, bowl, cup or mug to hold the bird seed and a plate or saucer to glue the dish to and to glue the PVC pipe to.

How to Assemble the Bird Feeder

First step is to paint the wood dowel. I personally like the color white for this project but any color you like or have on hand will work. I recommend using an outdoor paint and whether you use DecoArt Patio Paint and brush it on or use spray paint is a personal preference. I prefer to brush on the paint because spray paint frustrates me but that is just me and my opinion.

Next cut your PVC pipe down to size if needed. If your piece of pipe has writing on it you can clean it up by using sandpaper and sanding the area with writing. It only takes a few minutes and the pipe will no longer have unsightly writing.

So now that your wood dowel is painted and the PVC pipe is ready, you are ready to glue up the tea cup. I first glued the tea cup to the saucer. All you need to do is add the little ring of glue around the bottom of the tea cup and firmly place the cup on the saucer. 

At this point you have two choices. You can wait 24 hours for the glue to set before gluing the PVC pipe to the bottom of the saucer or you can carefully turn the tea cup with the saucer over and add a ring of glue on the PVC pipe and firmly place the pipe in the middle of the saucer.

Now wait a few days for the glue to fully cure. The glue I used, E6000, recommends waiting 24-72 hours of drying time before using.

After the glue has dried, all you need to do to complete your project is slide the PVC pipe over the painted wood dowel and ta-da your project is done!

Finally place the new bird feeder in the garden, fill it with bird seed and watch the birds fly in to enjoy their new feeder!

I hope you enjoyed this post and it inspires you to get out in the garden and be creative!

Happy desert gardening!

Joy Simper has a full time job as a home schooling stay at home mom. She is the one that holds the house and yard together and keeps the kids in line. She enjoys gardening, including seed starting and propagating plants.