I never have used frozen fruits. I suspect the Orioles and / or Waxwings responsible for taking our blueberries, strawberries and raspberries before WE can get to them. They like our pears too. :-) For offering jelly we use a shallow dish, like the kind you would put under a flower pot so it doesn't spooge water everywhere. Its shallow and heavy enough that they don't flip the thing when they perch on the edge. So how do you give the Orioles nectar? I placed some in a shallow dish and the starlings had a bath in it. LOL! What a sticky mess they made! Then they needed to rinse off in the regular water birdbaths. Would they drink orange juice? C3D

I don't know what one can do about the jelly situation but last fall I bought the best bird feeder that I have ever had and not a single squirrel has bothered it - the answer to all the many years of squirrel problems that I have had. I will try to explain what it looks like. I hang it from a wire hook. It is made of metal or tin which doesn't rust and if you can imagine a fat hour glass, that would be similar to what it looks like. It has a tin top which unclips for filling it and the hourglass shape is made of wire so that the birds can cling to it and peck the seeds out of it. There is also a wire ring around the bottom for birds to sit on while they eat. The one thing that I learned by mistake - when the corn in your seed mix settles to the bottom, don't empty it out because it is a "buffer" that keeps the smaller seed from running out of the feeder. As the birds eat, some seed falls to the ground and the mourning doves are busy eating that since they aren't usual bird feeder eaters. I also have an occasional squirrel that eats off of the ground as well as a chipmunk but they are fun to watch also. I will look to see if I can find the name of this wonderful invention. It is super and plan to purchase another one.

I don't think I would make jelly from juice canned 'a few years ago' either. Sugar, and your time, are not free and I don't know that the effort would reflect in your finished product. It might be fine, or could be a waste... I've cooked and reduced to juice berries when my freezer was bulging and I didn't have time to make jelly until later, but the longest I've kept the juice frozen was a few months, not years. Same with frozen berries, I'll thaw and extract the juice from berries frozen a year for jelly. While longer would be safe, it may not have the quality I want from time spent in the kitchen. I can buy a bottle of commercial organic grape juice, no additives, at the grocery store for just a few dollars if I wanted jelly makings ;0) I rarely eat jelly or jam, although DH likes it and frequently will make himself a PB&J sandwich (little kid style)

As Momj47 mentioned, use a grape juice you like. I happened to use Welch's, because that's what my girls like. Most times it turned out fine, but one time I got the tartaric crystals and was a bit surprised when I opened that jar. As I mentioned, they aren't harmful, but it'll not be what you expected. Now, I've made jelly using canned juice a dozen times or so, and only got crystals once, but I've never gotten them using fresh grapes. Which is not to say it can't happen, I guess, and is dependent on actually finding fresh grapes. Annie