I make my suet mixture using suet or lard. I melt the fat in a glass bowl in the microwave until liquid. Then I add crunchy peanut butter, which melts in the hot fat. Then I add the dried ingredients - corn meal, flour, oats (usually ground in blender), ground eggshells, crushed nuts, a little jam or jelly, etc. The mixture is about 1/2 fat, 1/2 dried ingredients - maybe a little more dried. I aim for a mixture that is the texture of Play-doh - it clumps together easily for the suet log, but also crumbles into pieces that I spread in a tray feeder. I made the suet log over 3 years ago out of an old red Pine log and glued lots of perches and branches. It did not have much bark on it - which is fine, except that over time the log has darkened quite a bit, perhaps because of the oils in the suet mixture. Also, most of the perches and branches have broken and fallen off. This birds don't seem to care. If you put perches on the log, this will enable many more birds to eat more easily. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing because with mine, it enables the Starlings and Blue Jays to hog the suet log, and it encourages House Sparrows. My suet log is pole-mounted with a squirrel/raccoon baffle, so nothing gets onto the log but the birds. Here's what the suet mixture looks like - Some Bluebirds on the suet log a couple years ago. They don't eat that much on the suet log any more, because I usually spread crumbles in a tray for them.

I ended up removing the suet feeder today as the sparrows figured out how to get enough of a foothold to eat from it. I guess upside down feeders just don't work here either. Its rather frustrating to look out into your yard to see all your nice feeders completely covered in house sparrows. So much so that I've almost quit feeding birds altogether a few times. I really do wish the neighbors would just quit feeding and putting out nestboxes for them. Woodpecker-feeders.com has one that they swear is starling resistant. Ive emailed the site owner and inquired if it is sparrow resistant as well, and I'm curious to hear what he says.

the block cage is the one for the molded woodpecker blocks the other are the square suet cages. When i make my mix i use some peanut butter and thicken the suet mix with cornmeal or rolled oats and mixed bird seed and when the fats harden up enough to spoon into the metal cage and i press it down to fill the block. and if it's not hardened enough i stick it in the freezer for awhile before i put it out. the others i use sorghum or molasses and peanut butter in summer instead of fats and they are gummy enough to hold together too. but i also used the plastic trays from old suet blocks or the halfs of the plastic trays that raspbpberrys or blackberrys come in and put them in the suet cages if the mix is not thick or gummy enough

mine varies from season to season and which birds i have at the time, In the cold winter months i use lard or shortning with peanut butter and add either mixed bird seed or oatmeal and make a thick dough. and mold it into the cage. But in summer cut down on the fats and use molasses or corn syrup with peanut butter and mixed bird seed and chopped fruits or berries again make a thick dough and mold it into the cages or crumble some in the platform. anytime of the year if i have leftover cereal ora few nuts or some sunflower seeds and what ever to the mix.