Bird Food Recipe: Suet

Suet is the perfect bird food recipe for the winter months when birds' food sources dwindle. Suet is loved by nuthatches, woodpeckers, wrens, chickadees, cardinals, and most insect-eating birds.

• You can use almost any seed or grain, mixed with bacon fat, lard, or peanut butter. A basic suet combines equal parts of bacon fat and assorted birdseed.
• Put it in a tuna or cat food can to chill (or freeze) until it's hard enough to hold its shape, then release it into a wire suet cage or sturdy mesh bag.
• For a fancier suet, add peanut butter to the mix. You can also bind cornmeal or oatmeal with straight peanut butter and spread it into holes drilled in a post or log.
• Birds also like dried fruits, so consider adding raisins, currants, apricots, or citron.

Here is a suet recipe from our archives: 

Suet Cake

• 2 parts melted fat (bacon fat, suet, or lard)
• 2 parts yellow cornmeal
• 1 part peanut butter

Mix all ingredients together and cook for a few minutes. Pour into small containers (tuna fish cans are good), and refrigerate or freeze until needed. Mixture can also be stuffed into 1-inch holes drilled in small logs to hang from trees. The recipe can be made all year long as long as you accumulate fat. Fasten containers securely to trees or feeders.

Enjoy watching your feathered friends warm up by your window!