North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["S & E Hills" <ehills7408@wowway.com>]

I evidently had too much free time this  Christmas.  I purchased wooden
strings of beaded garland (Red wooden beads, approximately cherry sized) and
I also bought a couple extra packages of christmas ornament hangers (green
ones, on clearance at K-Mart for 0.10 a pack).

I straightened one side of a hanger and put it through a bead and used
jewlery pliers to curl the wire to hold the bead.  

I don't know how these will work, but the investment was minimal (1.50 for
the garland at BigLots with easily 200 beads + 0.10 + 2.99 (pliers) and
time).

I'm hoping to be able to make a good report on how they work for me


Scott Hills
Zone 6b Michigan

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jim Fruth
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 10:15 AM
To: NAFEX
Subject: [NAFEX] Making Berry Bead Bird Decoys

James Elie asked, "Rather than try to re-invent the wheel, how did you 
secure the beads to the wire in a natural looking manner?"

    First I wrapped the wire around the berry but the birds weren't fooled. 
It didn't work.  Thereafter, I began with a tiny loop, the end of which was 
bent perpendicular to it (the loop) and slipped the bead on.   At the top of

the bead, I bent the wire into another perpendicular.  Holding the wire and 
bead with a channel-lock pliers, I bent the wire with another perpendicular 
parallel to that portion of the wire that is inside the bead.  This works 
with dead-soft aluminum wire but anything stiffer poses serious problems.
    I tried inserting glue into the bead hole but couldn't figure out how to

get the glue down the hole without messing up the berry.  I tried putting a 
gob of glue at the top of the bead to hold the wire but that failed too.  I 
tried just making the tiny bottom loop with no loop at the top but, when the

birds made off with the decoy, the wire sometimes fell out.
    If you think of an improvement, I'd like to learn of it.
    BTW, just putting one here and there in a tree doesn't work as well as 
using lots (a dozen or more) in a small tree.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
For jams, jellies, syrups and more:
www.jellygal.com
1-877-265-6856 (Toll Free)
1-218-831-7018 (My Cell) 

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