Time to keep the suet handy

beegood_gw

15 years ago

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Comments (8)

donald lucius
15 years ago
great picture. here we have had only one snow shower that melted in a few hours.but lots of cold temps. nites in the teens and twentys and days in the 30's and 40' so a few juncos and some chickadees and nuthatches are showing up. but nothing like when the snow starts sticking. I have both suet blocks and sorghum blocks hanging but not a lot of the winter birds yet to enjoys them.
paulsiu
15 years ago
Great picture. The Downy in my area have already made short works of the suet blocks. Didn't even last the whole week (not sure why the Red Belly ignore the block though).

I had to move the suet block like 3 times. The other two location got rip down and eaten, probably by Raccoons.

Paul
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Comments (16)
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.
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I've found some brands of pre-made suet blocks to be significantly more popular than others; Morning Song year round suet is liked far more than Blain's Farm & Fleet. They seem to be popular with woodpeckers of various types, Downy, Red-Headed, and Hairy I've seen. BOSS is very popular in my tube feeders, but do want to try the shelled variety to eliminate the shell waste. Corn seemed to be liked by Cardinals and Blue Jays, but also attracted lots and lots of Grackles, ugh. Thistle is liked by the smaller birds, especially finches, but I think they go for the bigger seeds more if they are available. Lots of various sparrows and similar smaller birds, Mourning Doves (counted 27 at one time, all at once), no Eurasian doves here but I have seen them in the fields a few mles away. Some Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, just saw a male Dark Eyed Junco this morning. 55 miles west of Chicago is the location. vince
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We purchased the same suet cage this year that Aurore just posted. Squirrel can't get at my suet, though it's comical watching him try. He's already gnawing away at the plastic coating, but oh well. Every year prior he'd come back several times a day to finish it off. I just leave him a plastic spoon every day with peanut butter on it now instead. I have birds that climb in, and a cardinal that just puts his head in. Haven't seen a large variety of birds this year, likely due to our warmer than usual Wisconsin weather.
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Comments (7)
It's really simple. Purchase white kidney or loin beef fat from a butcher. It's inexpensive. Now for the larger woodpeckers you can stop right here. They'll eat the raw chunked fat. To render suet, and make cakes to attract a wide variety of birds, ask the butcher to grind the fat. Put it in a big pot; you don't want to fill the pot any more than half full of the fat, less would be better. Heat it over medium-low heat until all the fat melts. It took a couple hours, or more, for me to do the six pounds of fat. Watch it closely; the fat can flash into flames if it gets too hot. As the fat melts, there will be bits of "cracklings" floating in it. Strain the fat to remove all the solid bits. Let the suet solidify, and then do the process over again. The rendered suet will keep for up to a year in the freezer. I mix the finished product half and half with peanut butter. Then add any combination of hulled sunflower seeds, whole wheat flour, oats, chopped corn or chicken scratch, peanuts, raisins, whatever you have on hand that birds like to eat. Pour it into molds or a baking dish until it hardens, cut into blocks that fit your feeder, and serve. You can search the web and find hundreds of "recipes" for ideas of things to mix into the suet.
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sally41
15 years ago
we get no snow at all here.we get a hard freeze a few days of the year so our birds dont have a hard time with food.
i still put out plenty of suet.the red bellied woodpeckers and warblers eat it but the pileateds refuse to come for a visit and they are my favorite bird!!
beegood_gw
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanx everyone. There are 2 of them. On the tree the female is on the left and the the male on the right lower down. You can see the red cheek on him. That is basically the only differance.
bandjzmom
15 years ago
Oh, you lucky thing you! We do have Pileateds in the woods across the street. I see and hear them from time to time, but I have not ever seen them in my yard. Not sure that I could draw them in with a feeder. Maybe I will buy a large one and try. I do get Downy Wp's, Red-bellied Wp's, and an occasional Yellow-bellied Sapsucker here.
anna_lisa
15 years ago
my suet is ready for them just did one this morning will do another one tomorrow will also buy some i think it will last longer i put mine along the closth line then just pull it in when I need to refill
glaswegian
15 years ago
Do you ever get squirrels bothering them?
rachel_frome_ky
15 years ago
That is so cool having Pileateds hanging around posing for photos. Ours were too jittery

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116

Time to keep the suet handy

Comments (8)

donald lucius

paulsiu

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sally41

beegood_gw
Original Author

bandjzmom

anna_lisa

glaswegian

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Time to keep the suet handy

Comments (8)

donald lucius

paulsiu

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sally41

beegood_gwOriginal Author

bandjzmom

anna_lisa

glaswegian

rachel_frome_ky

COMPANY

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beegood_gw
Original Author