How To Make A Gourd Bird House

Make a Gourd Bird House

It is fairly easy to create your own gourd bird house, first you need to get hold of some birdhouse gourds, which you can easily grow yourself, or buy from a country market, or craft store. - If you are going to purchase a gourd to use, go for one that is ready cured, as fresh gourds take up to a year to harden.

If you have your own gourds and haven't hardened them yet, then place them in a dry environment such as a shed for a year.


Once you have your hardened gourd, you will need to clean it, soak it in a bowl of water for up to 3 hours, then give it a good scrub with a green scourer or a metal pan cleaner,
you want to take off the layer of top skin, when you have removed the layer of skin and mildew, your gourd should be a lovely golden colour and woody, leave your gourd to dry.


Next you want to decide what size hole you are going to drill in your gourd, different sized holes attract different types of bird. Here is a useful chart from the American Gourd Society detailing sizes of holes for different birds

Now it is time to drill your hole, please make sure that you use a dust mask for this, it is also a good idea to keep it on whilst hollowing out your gourd, which you do through the hole that you have just drilled, you can use your finger, or make a hooked device from a wire coat hanger to get inside the gourd and take out all the old seeds and fibres that are inside it.


When you have done this, use a very small drill bit to drill some holes in the bottom of your birdhouse gourd, 3 or 4 holes are fine, these holes are for drainage purposes - you don't want your birds to get drowned in a storm do you?


Your gourd is pretty much ready for decorating now, for hanging your bird house you can tie string or wire to the stem, or remove the stem and screw in a hook.

Next you might like to decorate your creation, here's a post I wrote on decorating a gourd birdhouse.