Birds love peanut butter. A good base for a recipe is half lard and half peanut butter warmed and mixed together. You can then add nuts, oats, raisens and other things. If you have squirrels they will get it before the birds do. Did you notice this thread?

Thank you for the suggestion!
I didn't see that post .... I guess now would be a good time to read & take notes :) We have the fattest squirrels in the neighborhood - I know feeding the birds will need some serious strategy.

Birds may have issues eating peanut butter itself, but they should be fine..Peanut mixed with suet is absolutely fine..

I've seen a few posts talking about vegetable shortening being bad, although others say it's fine..I would most likely avoid it though.You could mix it with lard though..Gelatin probably wouldn't be best..

Suet, lard and fat are basically the same thing, just from different animals and different parts..

I normally just buy a block of pure lard, melt it, add peanut butter, and then add some bran, rolled oats, and linseed meal..I then add seed and/or nuts

I read a tip in a bird book which works. In many butchers or meat departments in your local supermarket, they trim off a lot of fat from the carcass and throw it away. Ask nicely and they'll give it to you. For nothing.

We tried it at our local supermarket and they said they would be glad to set it aside for us. It took a couple of reminders before they actually did it (the counter people don't talk to the meat cutters), but the last time I called on them, they set aside about 60 lbs of beef fat trimmings. I divided this into batches which I could handle, the rest went into the freezer.

I run it through my meat grinder, then melt it slowly, mix with peanut butter and cornmeal and pour into pans to set. This combination works in our hot summers in the Southwest where plain fat would melt. In cold weather, you can cut out the cornmeal or other starch and just use the fat with whatever else appeals to your birds. Right now we regularly have woodpeckers, flickers, bushtits, titmice, jays, thrashers, sparrows and finches at our feeders.

Cheryl

Excuse the typos. Im on my iphone

Im in milwaukee and winters i typically
get chickadees cardinals downy woodpecker
Sparrows (avoid adding Millet to suet) and the occasional Junco.
Haven't seen chickadees this year as of yet, possibly
Due to warmer winter.

Purchased a squirrel proof suet feeder from menards. Saves
Me lots of suet, I just give squirrels a spoon of
Peanut butter every day as they're hungry too

use chunky peanut butter. Lard and white or wheat flour

I also add the following ingredients until mix
Turns into easy texture to press into 9x18 cake pan, freeze
Then cut to size with spatula.

Rolled Oats
Cream of wheat
Wheat germ
Corn meal
Crushed fritos (Attracts juncos)
Crushed cereals
Chopped dried fruits - apples cranberries raisins
Nuts- sunflower walnut peanut crushed
Syrup or molasses or honey or all three
Sugar
Sometimes I add strained bacon grease w/lard

I added millet once and it attracted a lot of sparrows
Which tend to chase other birds away so I stopped
Using millet.

I tried rendering the real suet once and birds
Preferred the p-butter suet mix, happy me it's much
Easier.

Getting a platform feeder will attract a wider variety
Of birds. Juncos like to feed closer to the ground
So I put suet crumbs in a pie pan on top of my
Central air unit near my suet feeder, but they also
Visit my hanging feeder that I keep near brush so they
Have shelter from predators. I hang suet feeder
On shepherds hook outside my window.
At our cottage about two hours north With the same suet
I get a lot of juncos Chickadees red bellied woodpecker. Downy woodpecker Nuthatch and cardinals.

Do a search for Sialis + bird suet and you'll find
A number of recipes there. I sort of "wing" it and
Add a bunch of ingredients until I get the desired
Texture. No pun intended.

I make a mixture for the birds too - been making it straight on for the past 6 years. I don't know which is best but I've experimented with using a variety of fats including raw Suet, rendered Suet, bacon fat, Snowcap rendered lard, and Crisco. Mix with crunchy natural peanut butter, flour, corn meal, nuts, etc. They all work well and the birds have loved ALL of the mixtures! They go nuts when I bring it out.

This will be the 7th winter that I have fed Bluebirds continuously through the winter. Laast winter I had the most - 12 Bluebirds visting at the peak of winter. Almost all feeder birds LOVE it, except for the Finches. They like the BOSS in the tray feeder (black oil sunflower seed).

I use this easy recipe:

1 cup shortening

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup flour

4 cups yellow cornmeal

Melt shortening and peanut butter, add other ingredients and mix well. Put into containers or pan. I pre cut into squares and put in freezer. Birds love it, more than any store bought ones.

I live in Manitoba, Canada and use this recipe during the winter months.