How to preserve bird nest?

15 years ago

I found a bird nest that somebody almost broke, maybe some animal pushed it from a bush?

I fixed it and want to use as an art in my garden, but how can i prevent it from breaking apart under bad weather?

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Comments (5)

bluestarrgallery
15 years ago
I don't know about outside, but I have had bird's nest I found when we lived in the mountains many years ago and had put it in a tin box 7 years ago. When I was unpacking some forgotten stuff at this house I re-discovered it. Now I have it in a bare manzanita branch on my screen porch, kind of like it was made right there by a bird. I got some of those fake birds eggs (from Michaels)and put them in it and one of those fake birds and put it in a branch above - real cute.

I'll bet you could spray the nest with some of the dried floral preservative spray they have - still not sure how well it would last outside though - can you put it somewhere under the eaves of your house?

Can't wait to see how you use it.
kudzukween
15 years ago
I have some I put on the Christmas tree every year, so far,so good. I don't know how to keep one outside, but maybe spray it like Springvillegardens suggested. I use the Walmart kind that's about a dollar a can. Maybe you could set it inside a basket about the same size.
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OMG, Evelyn! If you knew how many baby mockingbirds I hand fed while working at Audubon, you'd die! People would bring in baby birds all day long, and you couldn't convince them to leave them alone, so my job was to take care of them and get them prepared to be released back into the wild later on. One of the reasons we do not encourage people "rescuing" the baby birds is that there comes a time when the bird has imprinted so strongly on the parent bird, it will not take food from a person. You can cram it down their throats, but it will just sit in the crop area and not be digested. So removing them from the parent's care is often a death sentence. Now if a whole nest comes down (like during a storm) sometimes there is no recourse but to rescue them and try to feed them. And I know techniques have improved GREATLY from the days I was involved in bird rescue. So the odds might be better now. But lordy, lordy...I must have handraised at least 200 baby mockingbirds in a couple years time. Not to mention jays, grackles, thrashers, titmice, and maybe 1,000 mourning doves! (My least favorite baby birds of all time.) Anyway, your picture is a trip down memory lane for sure. Saintp, the length of time it takes an egg to hatch varies from species to species, but usually it is not very long. A week or ten days, often. I'll see if I can find out about bluejays. I don't remember. Maybe I never even knew. But the info is probably out there somewhere. Will get back to you later. Marcia
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I have the same problem in Florida with my orchids. They hang in various baskets under the trees. Not only do the birds try to nest in the baskets, they love the sphagnum moss which is part of the potting mix. They also love the coir baskets, pulling chunks off the baskets which leaves big holes where all the potting mix falls out. One thing I did last year which seemed to work was to add small lava rock to the top of the potting mix. They do not like it and have left the plants alone. I removed it after nesting season and saved it for this year. I found a bunch of house wrens and finches landing in the baskets this morning and I knew it was time to get the rock out. You could probably use small gravel. Would work the same. Good luck and let us know how it goes... Jane
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If it sits on the grass to water and drain then sneaky snails could have snuck in within an hour. And caterpillars are laid as eggs on plants by flying insect adults. It does look like damage from one of these munchers though. Kind of a relief, I believe. Do you have lettuce or even potatoes? You can lay them on top of the media to try to attract snails then squish and flush them. Also, if you repotted it and havent had it long its entirely possible there were snail eggs on the roots and they hatched after you repotted. Some people spray roots with hydrogen peroxide to kill snails and their eggs but I'm not sure how a fern would handle such treatment.
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I had a dove nest in an epiphyllum plant I had hanging under a porch roof. Like your bird - dry and safe location. What I did to water was water v-e-r-y slowly, and not have the water stream hit the dirt by the nest (big pot, nest didn't cover the entire surface). I watered often enough that I didn't need to stand there too long, and I could get slightly different parts of the pot each time. 3 or 4 sets of doves hatched from that pot over 2 years! Luckily, being a succulent, it didn't need the copious watering that my fuchsias always have, but that IS how I handled the situation. Funny enough, that plant grew like nobody's business, and got huge, and bloomed vigorously during the dove 'tenancy'.
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erdnuss
15 years ago
Honestly, I think most bird nests should do fine depending on where you put it. If you think about it, a birds nest is made outside and is designed to house eggs and baby birds in them through all sorts of weather. I wouldn't leave it laying out in the open all the time, like on a picnic table, simply because they are light and can be blown away by the wind. Perhaps place it in a bush or small tree in the yard? Maybe place it on the ground but within a garden (so no one steps on it). You could find smooth round stones in a river/lake/ocean...or where ever and then paint them to look like some type of birds eggs. The small stones may not be much weight, but they'd be a little weight to hold it down.
If you do put it on the ground, keep it close to plants because the plants will block the wind from it.
And if all else fails, just wait until later in the summer when more birds nest empty out then go climb a tree and find another one :)
toomuchglass
15 years ago
I'm so glad you asked ...I have a nest that I found & I adore it ... it's in my China cabinet -- I Was wondering how long it will last . Thanks - now I know that I can spray it to preserve it . .
flwrs4ever
15 years ago
hi, I would just like to let you know i found the prettiest birds nest last season,and my son loved it..so we put it on our rock wall with a pot next to it..WELL only about 30 minutes later...a squirrel came, and ripped it in half and took it with him/her...UGH !

So..if you want to keep it, make sure the squirrels wont get to it !

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How to preserve bird nest?

Comments (5)

bluestarrgallery

kudzukween

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erdnuss

toomuchglass

flwrs4ever

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