Ryedale Folk Museum

Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers and the North York Moors National Park volunteers we now have a bird hide for visitors to enjoy. The project was also made possible thanks to funding from the Jack Brunton Charitable Trust. The Bird Hide is positioned at the top of the site next to the Iron Age Round House, looking out onto the Cornfield Flower Meadow. Once the meadow begins to flower and the wildlife comes out we hope the hide will be a great place where visitors can enjoy watching nature and through information inside be able to identify what they are looking at. To celebrate our new bird hide we are having an ‘All Things Bird’ week on our social media sites. As chickens are one of the most common types of bird found we thought we would share with you what chickens we have here at the museum. We currently have 8 historic breeds of chicken and 1 duck! All are utlitiy breeds (bred for eggs or meat) apart from our Silkies who are bred for show. Marans This breed was developed in...

To celebrate our spring-watch themed holiday activities we are running a number of spring-watch themed features on our Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as our blog that you can get involved with. They include ‘5 Signs of Spring’, ‘Bird Week - watching & identifying’, ‘Egg Quiz’ and other discovery challenges. Our first spring-watch blog is a tutorial put together by our workshop volunteers on how to make your own bird box. It is really simple so why not give it a go! Step 1 : Mark out your bird box pieces to the dimensions given. Step 2: Cut out the pieces, using a hand saw, or alternatively a Bandsaw or Jigsaw. Be careful! Step 3: When all pieces are cut out place them together to make sure they fit. Step 4 : Starting with the sides and back nail your pieces together. We recommend drilling pilot holes for your nails or screws to fall into, this will reduce the risk of your wood splitting!   Step 5 : Fix the bottom in place using the same method as the sides(pilot holes an...