One of the best presents you can give your birds is a batch
of homemade suet. It’s easy to make and
your birds will love it. We make enough
suet to last about three weeks and as I write these notes four great kiskadees,
three green jays, two golden fronted woodpeckers and two titmice are flying
back and forth between our suet stations.
We place the suet about seven feet high in two mesquite trees and the
only thing to watch out for are ants that find suet as scrumptious as the
birds. Sprinkle a small amount of
insecticide at the base of the trees to keep them free of marauding ants.
The process we use was concocted using several recipes
available online and in a number of books.
Our recipe is tweaked to meet our needs. It calls for the following ingredients:
1 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter
2-3 Cups of Mixed Bird Seed (we use three cups)
3 Cups Yellow Corn Meal
2 Cups Bleached or Unbleached Flour
1 Cup Lard or Shortening
Place the lard and the peanut butter in a large pot. Put the pot on the stove at medium heat. Remove the pot from the heat when the lard
and peanut butter are melted.
Now add the corn meal, flour and bird seed into the pot and
stir until well blended. Place the
mixture into a container sized appropriately to fit your suet cage. Be sure and spray the containers with
non-stick cooking spray before you fill them with the suet mixture!
We use plastic containers saved from guacamole purchased at the
grocery store or from store bought suet.
In other words, be on the lookout for suitable containers.
Now place your completed suet containers in the freezer or
refrigerator to set. This will take
about an hour in the freezer.
Fit the frozen suet into a suet cage and then sit back and
enjoy watching your birds gobble it up.
Okay, fellow birders. Can you identify the birds pictured above?
