My neighbor recently broke her ankle, and has asked the boys and I to feed her birds in her backyard everyday. Before I met our neighbor, I didn't know anyone who loved birds more than her. She has tons of birds who frequent her backyard for the plethora bird food she provides. These birds range from cardinals, to tiny baby birds (I'm not a bird person...yet!).
Anyway, we were talking one afternoon about the suet bird food that she puts out for the hummingbirds. She mentioned that I should try to make my own and see if the birds will come. I said that I usually have bacon and ground beef grease leftover whenever we cook, and sometimes I wish that we could reuse it. So, therefore, I am experimenting with that idea.
I've heated up the leftover bacon grease, combined some peanut butter, oatmeal, nuts, and cheap bird food to it. Then I froze it to make it solid. Then I cut it into fourths. I then hung up a netted bag in our tree, so that the birds can eat it (instead of the rats! Eww!)
So far, through my experimenting I have seen a couple of birds on our deck, but they weren't really interested in the suet. The squirrels are a different topic! They are sniffing around, and playing with the bag I hung in the tree. I think they're more interested in the peanuts and peanut butter than anything else.
Here's another blog I found that tried making suet as well:
hey mrs f. at least you didnt say that the birds range from big birds to tiny birds!
ReplyDeleteive tried using suet and the squirrels that live at our house knock the suet baskets down to the ground. theyve done this four times. its kind of sucks. i think where i live i have to use one of those anti squirrel feeding devices if i want to feed the birds.
however, i think homemade suet is a wonderful idea. i do end up with some good amt of bacon grease that is in my freezer. i never get around to cooking with it all!
-roseann (from mam)