Posted to the All creatures... forum
9 November 2009 2:20 PM
I too always use dripping to make up a mix for the birds! Will look into the suet pellets as then I'll be able to do the more often!! I'd like to make one (or more!) of those log feeders with holes that I can fill with the mixture!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
9 November 2009 3:09 PM
I’m going to have a go at some of those, I bet the woodpeckers really appreciate them. The Greater Spotted Woodpeckers who visit our garden have become quite adept at getting the fat balls but it is a feat of acrobatics to do it.
Have you any tips on how best to make them please?
Life is too short to waste.
9 November 2009 4:49 PM
Hi WF!
Not ever made one, but was just going to get a log of about 12” long, 3” diameter, drill some holes in it and fill them with the mix! Also screw in a hook at the top to hang it from! Just need to buy one of those wide drill bits!
Had a quick look with Google and some sites recommend putting dowling perches too (which isn't a bad idea!!)
9 November 2009 7:32 PM
I think things are getting confused here. Are you asking how to make suet pellets? If so, I don't make them. I buy them ready to feed. The berry ones vaguely resemble raw minced beef. Here's where I get mine:-
http://www.streetendfeeds.co.uk/productdetails.asp?id=150
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
10 November 2009 6:34 AM
I have a similar homemade recipe that I adapted from one I found on an american website, I have an old metal casserole dish that I keep for this.
The starlings were eating the shop bought ones too quickly so needed a cheaper alternative, needless to say all the ingredients are from the 'bargain brands'
1Kg Lard, 1Kg Flour, 1Kg Porridge oats, 1 Kg Mixed seeds, 1 Jar peanut butter (optional).
Melt the lard (and peanut butter) in the pan whilst mixing together all the dry ingredients, then mix these into the melted fat (quite a stiff mixture).
I then line some plastic cups with freezer bags and fill each one with the mixture (this makes them easy to remove), these are left to cool in our cold porch and fit perferctly into our large fat ball feeders.
Thestarlings love them!!!
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag" Mary Poppins
10 November 2009 6:53 AM
That sounds interesting ND. Definitely another one I shall try. Thanks for that. Roughly how many does that make, and do they store in an airtight container?
10 November 2009 9:58 AM
Squirrel: I think things are getting confused here. Are you asking how to make suet pellets? If so, I don't make them. I buy them ready to feed. The berry ones vaguely resemble raw minced beef. Here's where I get mine:- http://www.streetendfeeds.co.uk/productdetails.asp?id=150
i used to use suet to make fat cakes as I used to get big boxes of Atora from Makro at the fraction of the price of buying from the supermarket and one box would make loads of fat cakes. I used to use whatever trays were around so the sizes would vary depending on what I had to use.
I used to melt the suet in a pan, then pour it into a bowl mixing the other ingredients in and then pouring it into the trays. I'd leave them to set and then stick them in the freezer or cupboard depending on when they were going to be used. I used to make a suppy that would last a couple of months all in one go.
There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. ~Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays
10 November 2009 10:59 AM
Thanks for that KatTai. I may well try these as it should work out cheaper but my "regulars" will not touch the suet blocks, fat balls, bells or coconut halves that are available to buy ready-made. Even if that is the only food out for them, if they are intact (i.e. whole), they simply look and then go away again! The only time they will eat them is if I smash them to smithereens... picky so-and-so's ☺
10 November 2009 11:28 AM
Hello. Thanks for the recipies. Here's a mixture I use to make a homemade ground feeding mix.
Mix all the ingredients together until all the ingredients are well mixed. The starlings absolutely love this mixture.
Paul.
10 November 2009 11:46 AM
Funny! My birds won't touch raisins! They only like sultanas!!
10 November 2009 11:52 AM
Squirrel: Thanks for that KatTai. I may well try these as it should work out cheaper but my "regulars" will not touch the suet blocks, fat balls, bells or coconut halves that are available to buy ready-made. Even if that is the only food out for them, if they are intact (i.e. whole), they simply look and then go away again! The only time they will eat them is if I smash them to smithereens... picky so-and-so's ☺
I used to find that the starlings, jackdaws, blackbird, thrush, rooks and magpies would take on the fat cakes, occassionally the robin would have a go. The smaller birds were happier with the sunflower seeds so there wasn't much competition. I event tried one of the cage fat feeders but they just weren't interested. The smaller birds had their feeders, the bigger birds had their fat cake and they all seemed quite content with that The pigeons were left picking up the few scraps so I went down from having around 20 pigeons in the garden to a much more tolerable 4-6 (though I would occassionally throw out some seed for them).
Depending on what regulars you have, it might be worth playing arounds with ingredients to see if you can create a mix they like. I found the blackbirds and thrushes loved the fat cakes with fruit in, the jackdaws were fond of cakes with whole almonds and hazelnuts and the starlings ate whatever was on offer lol I did make a cake with Bogena insect mix and that was popular with the robin and dunnock if I remember rightly.
10 November 2009 1:17 PM
Thanks for that info KatTai (know what you mean about the starlings!) and thanks also to Paul for the recipe. I am conscientiously writing down all these recipes and I can see that before long I will have a more comprehensive recipe book for birds than I do for humans!
10 November 2009 4:26 PM
You all make me feel so lazy. Everything we feed our birds comes from the shops! What is interesting though is how we have all said how our birds' tastes vary. I can see that local birds may have just got used to what we provide but that wouldn't account for the seasonal visitors. Our nijer seed is never touched. The Gold Finches insist on eating the sunflower hearts.
23 November 2009 10:25 PM
Brenda H, you have picked up on what is now an accepted fact in many gardens including mine. I had to put all my nijer seed into the fat dish as it wasn't touched by any bird.
To get back to the fat balls/cake discussion, we save all the fat from meat cooking thoughout the summer in the freezer and now winter is here melt it down in the microwave, mix with ordinary inexpensive bird seed, plus whatever else is at hand, cheese rind, peanuts, dried fruit. This mixture is poured into an old steel dish allowed to cool and put on the bird table. The dish is about 12 ins diam and 2 ins deep. This lasts about 7 days. Starlings,dunnocks, blackbirds, robins, collared doves, chaffinches, house sparrows and the rest of the tit family all come to it in turn. Nothing is left they even eat the husks as they are coated with fat in the mix. The best fat to use is lamb as it goes really hard. Cheaper than buying lard or dripping. As regards the nuthatches I have 2 one is busy hiding the sunflower hearts around my garden the other in the adjacent wood. If you are worried about uneaten seed in your garden put the feeder in the lawn and move every week, then in next summer you will have a great' flowering' meadow in place of a lawn.
Sussexman
This world is not ours but only in trust for future generations.
23 November 2009 11:13 PM
I also make my own fat mixture, with suet or lard bought from the supermarket and whatever edible seed may be left in the feeders at cleaning out time, added to some fresh general seed mix and crushed peanuts. This goes in my "sparrows' corner" crumbled up in a mounted mesh tray, and is the only way I can get my sparrows to eat fat. (They do eat the suet treats, but only get them as treats and not as a regular thing). I also give the same fat mixture to my other birds, with added sultanas and other bits I have lying about, some crumbled up and some in half coconuts. The starlings and jackdaws get most of it. The jackdaws stuff as much as they can in their beaks and fly off with it. Any that gets dropped gets eaten by Lola the dog.
As for seeds sprouting, this summer I had a wonderful sunflower growing in a hanging basket. It grew to over 5 feet and had a lovely big flower on it. I did look odd next to my violas and other basket plants, but was a brilliant conversation piece!
If life an empty bubble be, how sad for those who cannot see the rainbow in the bubble