Do you have bird feeders in your yard? We have three of them. two are these suet cake feeders and one holds bird seeds. The suet cakes are easy to find but are they cost a bit? I was on Pinterrest the other day and found the recipe for home made suet cakes. It sounded so easy I had to make some.
6 heaping scoops of Crisco
3 heaping scoops of Peanut butter
2 cups Cornmeal (or 2 cups of Oatmeal, or 1 cup each of Cornmeal and Oatmeal)
Wild bird seed to thicken
That's it for the base. Put the Crisco and Peanut butter in a large pot and melt it all down, add the cornmeal (or oatmeal or mixture of both) and wild bird seed so that it's nice and thick.
Add raisins, apples, nuts, whatever you think the birds will like and cook it so it's nice and thick. Allow to cool a bit to see if your mixture is too thick to hold together or too thin and add Crisco/peanut butter to thin it out a bit and make it all hold together or more bird seed/ raisins / fruit to thicken it up.
If you have the suet cakes you get in the store, keep the plastic container it comes in and fill with the new home made mixture. If you don't have the container, pour the mixture into a greased 9 x 14 pan and let cool. Once cool, cut to the size of the suet feeder you have and wrap each in clear wrap and freeze until you're ready to use them.
We did an experiment where we put store bought suet cakes in some of the feeders and some of the home made suet cakes in some of the feeders and watched to see which got eaten the fastest.
The store bought suet cakes took 2 weeks to be eaten, the home made ones were gone in 3 days! So we are making them every week and the birds are coming to our house a lot.
So do you feed the birds and if so, what do you feed them?
I feed my feathered friends. I have never made them homemade food. I imagine the kids would love to make this!
ReplyDeleteI feed birds also. We have a seed filled bird feeder and a suet cake feeder. I don't mind buying the suiet cakes since they are less than a dollar apiece, but this sounds like a nice thing to do. I'm going to try it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I throw out old bread for them. Nothing regular though.
ReplyDeleteI go through birdseed in the summer and so much of it goes to waste falling on the ground. I wonder if suet cakes would be better? What kind of birds do they attract?
ReplyDeleteThat is so sweet of you to feed the birds and they definitely loved your homemade suet cakes.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't feed the birds since we got a certain corgi, LOL, who would always chase them away and bark. I like that homemade recipe, too cute that the birds like it better too!
ReplyDeletebetty
We live in Florida, so the birds always have plenty to eat, without putting food out for them. We also have lots of squirrels who are happy in our live oak trees. I love watching birds at feeders though, when we are at my grandmother's house, in Ohio. I know the birds appreciate you, there!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great (and simple) suet recipe! We don't have a lot of birds, due to our large cat population, but I do keep wild bird food in our feeder, year round.
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