There’s nothing more refreshing than to see birds fluttering around and listening to their sweet angelic songs and sounds. I just love everything about wild birds and I see quite the variety here on the farm. All through the year I make homemade suet for these feathered beauties…just one way of giving back to all the joy they bring to me. Below, I’ll show you an easy way to make homemade suet so that you can please the wild birds near you.
Depending on the time of year, the supplies you will need are simple and probably already have on hand. For Spring & Summer, you simply need bird seed, peanut butter, spoon, and mixing bowl. In cooler weather, you will want to add animal fat (grease from burgers, steaks, etc).
Mix the peanut butter and seed together in the bowl. Make sure it’s mixed well. You can make this ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator to use as needed. If using animal fat, the mixture will last for about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. If you make up a large batch, roll the mixture into 1″ balls and freeze them. The mixture will last up to 3 months.
I made homemade suet feeders from some tree branches that we cut down. I try to repurpose every possible thing here on the farm. To make them, just drill about an inch thick hole to place your homemade suet. I added eye hooks for the twine to hang the feeders on a tree.
Fill up the holes with your homemade suet. Make sure to smash as much as you can in the holes. You will find some suet hogs that will become bullies at the tastiness of the suet. I found that female cardinals are the biggest suet hogs, although male woodpeckers some in a close second.
Simply add the twine and hang. Make sure to hang the suet feeder on something strong as you will have several birds eating at the same time.
If you do not have the means to make a suet feeder, you can simply place a suet ball in a bag that oranges come in. The birds will be attracted to the red color. If you buy bagged oranges, depending on the size of your suet balls, you should be able to make 4-6 feeders from one bag.
Now you’re all done, so sit back and enjoy the birds feasting on your homemade cuisine.
And when it’s all said and done, be sure to have an official spoon licker. My black lab, Rascal, takes this job very seriously! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed this post and that you will now make your own homemade wild bird suet. The birds will thank you!
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There are so many birds in my yard this winter. I need to make something like this for them.
You’ll really enjoy making the homemade suet Angela. Kids would enjoy making these too! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting on this post! 🙂
The birds would really enjoy it if I made this for them. I will pin to my gardening board to remember to do this soon!
Yes they would Joy, and you will enjoy watching the birds too. So it’s a win-win! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. 🙂
We have so many birds near us, I really should make some suets so I can enjoy more bird watching. I’d love to get some good pictures.
Up until we moved to our farm nearly 6 years ago, I hadn’t taken the time to watch birds. I was too busy raising and providing for my kids. Now, I’m loving bird watching. I hope you do make some homemade suet, Tonya…your birds will love you for it! Plus it’s so relaxing to watch the birds and a great opportunity to capture some perfect pictures. Thanks for stopping by and commenting on this post! 🙂
We have a huge yard that leads into woods and we make homemade suet and bird feeders all the time. We also take care of the squirrels. 🙂 Our son loves it.
So glad you mentioned adding the fat, so many people forget and it can be hard on the birds beaks!
OMG. I had no idea it was SO easy. I get frustrated buying bird seed only to end up with weeds on the ground under and around the feeder. I’ll have to give this a try!
My kids would love this considering we’re always buying stuff for our feathered visitors to the backyard. And I love that I can get them to be involved in providing the meal as well!
So much better than buying that nasty half rancid stuff ready-made at the store.
This sounds so easy! My grandparents have a ton of bird feeders, I’m sure they’d love this!
I remember doing this in gradeschool!
We have a tree in front of our house. I bet this would be great in the spring.
My daughter wants us to put something out for the birds. She build a bird house and we hung it outside her window, but it needs food to attract birds. The problem is that we have so much wild life I am afraid we would attract the bears before the birds! Just what I need, a bear knocking on her window!
Love this idea! My In-laws love having a lot of birds and squirrels in their yard. Pinning this to send to Grandma for the boys to help her make!
Perfect! I think I should make some today since a snow storm is rolling in later. I bet the birds would appreciate it. 🙂