Farm Supplies You Didn’t Know Could Help Wildlife Habitats

Look at your backyard. Do you have an old pallet you’re waiting to turn into firewood? Maybe a terracotta pot you plan on throwing in the trash? 

You probably have a whole bunch of things that are way past their prime, and right now, they’re clutter. In a little while, they’ll end up in a landfill. 

What a waste, isn’t it? So, why not find a use for all this? 

Across the country, wildlife is struggling to find places to nest, eat, and raise their babies.

The good news is that most people already have everything they need to help them out. This doesn’t require any investment other than a little bit of your time and a few pieces of what you’d call junk. 

Read on, and you’ll see how to do your part for the animals in need. 

7 Creative Ways Farm Materials Can Transform Wildlife Habitats

Often, the best supplies are the ones you already have, but even if there’s something missing, local hardware and farm supply stores, such as Jonestown AG farm supply, have everything you need for this purpose. 

So let’s see how to use it.

Old Fencing Materials

This refers to old wooden posts and wire fencing. 

You can make them into a base for a brush pile. Stack a few posts in a teepee shape and pile branches on top. Voilá, you’re done! You’ve just built a mini apartment complex for rabbits, chipmunks, and wrens. They’ll get a safe place to hide from the predators and extreme weather, and you get the satisfaction of knowing you did something amazing for the environment. 

You can also use a short section of fencing to protect a new garden bed while letting small animals slip under it for cover. 

Feed Trays and Buckets

Have a cracked bucket on you? Great, that can be a diner for skunks and opossums. Turn it on its side, and that’s it. Another thing you can do is nail it on a fence post, and you’ve got yourself a proper bird feeder in seconds. 

Even better, take that bucket, fill it with clean water, add a rock for a perch, and you’ve made a drinking station for every little creature that passes by, from butterflies to foxes. 

Unused Hay Bales

A spoiled hay bale is never actually spoiled because it’s a treasure for wildlife. Tuck a couple against the back of the barn, and it will be an insulated bunker for mice and insects. In the spring, you’ll see birds pulling strands from it to build their nests. 

Another way you can use these hay bales is to break one apart and use the loose hay as mulch in your flower beds. It’ll keep the soil moist and give beetles and spiders a place to live. 

Old Wooden Pallets

An old wooden pallet is one of the most useful things you can have because it’s essentially a habitat. Lay it flat on the ground, fill it with soil, and plant wildflowers. The spaces between the slats will be perfect little tunnels for toads and lizards.

If you go and stack a couple of pallets on top of eachothers, it can be the perfect sheltered cave for a family of rabbits.

Even if you just lean a pallet against a tree, it’s still useful, if for nothing else, then at least as a place where birds can perch comfortably. 

If you stack two pallets together, you’ll have a sheltered cave that can be a home for a rabbit or two. Even if you just lean one against a tree,

Feed Bags/Burlap Sacks

If you’ve got a couple of unused ones, you can create/build some really cozy spots – and it’s super simple to do.

What you do is you just take an old burlap sack, fill it with leaves, tie it up, and wedge it in the rafters of your shed. Look a few days after, and you might see a little bird has moved in. 

You can also fill the sack with soil, cut a few holes in it, and plant flowers. Hang it up, and you’ve just made a snack bar for hummingbirds and bees. Another way to use burlap sacks is to drape them over plants when the nights get cold, so the frost doesn’t set in. 

This way, there will be more food for everyone in the morning. 

Unused Garden Tools

Don’t think that a shovel with a broken handle is done with working because it isn’t. Drill a bunch of holes of different sizes in the handle and mount it on a sunny wall. Solitary bees will move into the holes to raise their babies.

And that metal blade of a hoe can become a little bridge over a muddy patch for small animals. 

Old Tires

Another practically finished home for animals. Grab the tire, place it in a cool spot in the shade, and put leaves at the bottom. That’s it – that’s all frogs and toads need as far as summer shelters go. 

If you have more than one tire, you can stack 2 or 3, fill them with soil, and plant flowers.

You’ll have a bunch of butterflies coming every day. And if you sink a tire halfway into the ground, line it with a plastic bag, you can have a watering hole that’s safe for even the smallest animals. 

Conclusion

This is a pretty good deal, isn’t it? 

You get to clear out your junk, and animals get a better place to live. There are literally no downsides to this at all, so don’t be so fast with tossing things in the trash because there’s a chance they can be reused. 

Besides, who wouldn’t want a bee diner or a songbird hotel in their backyard?