Wonderful! It's terrific that you're providing such nice resources for wildlife. I love it. I'm super envious too, as I love bees and hornets/wasps. In my last garden, I had a slow-drip water water feature that always had bees drinking from it and I loved it. In my current place (in Scottsdale not too far from the old one) I do get quite a few bees, but they only visit the flowers and not the several birdbaths I keep filled. Grrrr. I'm envious. Oh way, I already said that. Well, it's true! Great post and pic, thanks for sharing it!

Hey sagrinin. Here's great info for that: http://www.sialis.org/suet.htm My husband found our recipe on line on the site vabluebirds.org. We made bunch of batches last year, and the birds preferred it 5 to 1 over the commercial. It is: http://www.virginiabluebirds.org/feedingbluebirds.html We just put it into the standard little inexpensive suet cages from the stores. To this recipe, I added 1 generous cup of your standard mixed wild bird seed. Hope this helps ! Enjoy !

Hi caroline! There have been reports of nests with 10 or more eggs this year. One landlord reported 15 eggs! I think they're having more because of the cold. Sounds like you're going to have a wonderful season!

The question it sounds like you're asking doesn't really work. It's like asking if King Arthur bread flour will work in the bread machine. The responses will all be questions about what kind of bread machine with which settings, and what recipe are you using. If you're using the machine as a mixer, yes, you can make bread with Cup 4 Cup, but kneading is unnecessary. Mix it and go right to the rising/proof cycle. Will it work in the particular recipe you have in mind? What's the recipe? As we've said above, you probably need to adjust it. Do a Google search and you'll find bloggers who've made gluten free bread successfully in their bread machines. You generally need a binder in gluten free baking. The difference between Cup 4 Cup and other gluten free flour blends is that it already contains the xanthan gum, which makes things stick together, so you don't have to do calculations and conversions when adding it to your cake recipe. There's more to it with yeast rising, however, and you'll likely need some modifications. The description of original (blue bag) Cup for Cup from their website: Cup4Cup’s Original Multi-Purpose Flour has the taste, texture and performance of regular flour and is useful in almost all baking and cooking recipes that do not require yeast. Substitute 1:1 for regular flour into your favorite recipes for homemade cookies, cakes and cupcakes, quick breads, pie crust, gravy and sauces, scones, muffins – even homemade pasta! Cup4Cup lets you concentrate on the fun of baking gluten-free without having to worry about altering other ingredients. Enjoy all those family recipes you’ve missed for so long, and have fun creating new ones at the same time. On their FAQs page: Can I make bread with the Cup4Cup Original Flour? The Cup4Cup Original blend is most similar in composition to all-purpose or pastry flour, making it suitable as a replacement for regular flour in recipes for cakes, cookies, muffins, pies, biscuits, quick breads, sauces, in pasta dough and as a coating for frying. We do not recommend Cup4Cup as a gluten-free flour replacement in bread recipes that require yeast. This is because Cup4Cup lacks the structure and composition to mimic the rise and texture of yeast-based wheat breads. With that, making bread with Cup4Cup is not impossible; it’s just that the recipe will require some modifications and experimentation. For example, we have been able to modify a brioche recipe and develop Brioche Rolls using Cup4Cup. If you would like the recipe for our Brioche Rolls please visit our Recipe section.