A bird enjoys a cake made by Jess Mancini. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

I like watching birds. I’m annoyed by the seeds on the ground and the mess they make around a feeder. Who knows what vermin are attracted by the fallen seeds.

Maybe bird seed cakes are less messy, but I’m not spending $5 a cake. I was feeding birds, not taking my wife to dinner. By the way, suet cakes are about $1.25 each and that may be a reasonable alternative to what I propose here, although I believe seeds may attract a wider variety of species. You’ll have to talk to a bird expert. I have a limited understanding and keep that in mind as you proceed.

I had an idea. I can make my own cakes by binding the seed with an edible glue like Elmer’s School Glue and compacting it in a reusable mold. I went to YouTube to see if anyone has done it. They have. Once again, a day late and a dollar short. I bought gelatin, which was the method used on YouTube, and started making my own cakes. I reluctantly switched to gelatin. School glue diluted with water was more cohesive, the cakes were less prone to crumble and it was easier to mix than gelatin in hot water. Besides, the birds didn’t seem to mind the glue. The glue issue may result in me getting chewed out by avid birders, but I’m a humble scribe, not an ornithologist.

Hand compacting with enough pressure to form the seed into a cake was difficult for me. My cakes often crumbled.

I had another idea. When I was a little kid, I helped my grandfather make wine in the cellar where he built a press into the wall to squeeze grapes. I needed such a press. I modified an old hand screw, which is a woodworker’s clamp. I drilled a hole in a handle for a cross lever to give me more torque. However, the wooden handle eventually failed and I made another from 3/8 black pipe fastened to the spindle of the clamp with a hardened steel rivet. An old handle from a vice through the pipe completed things.

The parts for the bird seed cake press are, from left, cup, center dowel, pressure plate and modified clamp. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

The mold is a 50 cent plastic cup from Walmart. A wood dowel attached to a circular plate that fits in the bottom of the cup forms the center hole from where the cake can be hung or put into a bird feeder of my own design, a design I will describe in a later episode. I spray the inside of the cup with a shortening to prevent the seeds from sticking to the sides. The cup is filled with seeds coated with the gelatin mixture. A pressure plate made from a half-inch flange with a 2 inch nipple and end cap is placed atop the seeds with the dowel in the nipple and the whole shebang is placed between the jaws of the clamp. The clamp is tightened until it can go no further without the cup cracking. Your mileage may differ.

The compacted cakes are dried for 24 hours before removing from the molds, then air dried for another day or two before being wrapped until ready to use. The press considerably reduced production time and made more consistent and better-compacted cakes. Less seed falls on the ground and the birds enjoy themselves, too. Rather than $5 or $6 a cake, I got it down to maybe 50 cents, leaving me more money to take my wife to dinner.

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Unless this column was enough of a waste of time, send ideas for “Wastin’ Time with Jess Mancini” to Jess Mancini at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.

The mold and clamp are ready to produce a bird seed cake. (Photo by Jess Mancini)