Hi Krista, I feed homemade suet in the winter and store bought suet in the summer. I have never had any problems with insects or ants.

It is fun to watch the parents bring the babies to the suet.

Karen

I make a home-made suet mixture and feed it year-round without problems. The recipe uses rendered suet, peanut butter, flours, and nuts, and remains solid and safe even in hot summer weather up to 95 F or so. This is because the rendered suet has been boiled and strained to remove the "crackling" which are bits of meat and gristle. These are the parts of raw suet that spoil and go bad in warmer weather.

I do feed raw suet in a suet cage throughout the winter. The woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Chickadees especially like the raw suet and it provides some extra fat and energy for the birds. A few others nibble on it too, including the Bluebirds! Upside - I don't have to baffle the raw suet - the squirrels have no interest in it.

Thanks for the info. It's good to know that it can be easily fed to birds in summer.

It would be nice to see bluebirds in the spring or summer!

Krista, when the weather warms up, and the insects become active again, I rarely see the Bluebirds at the feeders. They seem to prefer insects and would probably prefer meal worms to the suet mixture. On occasion a parent Blue has brought a fledgeling to the suet log though, and they sometimes use the bird baths in the summer too.

Also, it does not attract any insects.