I saw my butcher cutting up meat and asked him what they did with the fat. He said they throw it away. I asked if I could have a chunk to make bird food suet. He gave me a rather large piece ... at no charge! How awesome is that! So night I'm going to make some for the wee birdies that are having a hard time of it this year. I live in BC Canada and we have colder than normal weather and snow. I love to help my feathered friends over the cold spell. Thanks for posting this vid so I could learn how to make it for them. Happy New Year and God bless!
+Dee Inbc Thank you very much and Happy New Year to you too. These were made with Suet Fat which isn't just the fat off of meat it has specific properties and renders or melts very well. The ordinary meat fat might work just as well I don't know as I have never tried it. Suet id the fat found around the kidneys inside the animal.
My local groceries never give out any foods, not even to the homeless shelters. You know, fear of someone getting sick. Anyway I think meat fat would turn rancid too quickly & it may make the birds sick.
I am a wildlife research found it enjoyable... thank you. However I would like to correct a misconception. Peanut butter is an excellent food for wild birds... they like other forms of wildlife require salt in their diet. Should you have any questions please feel free to contact me through private message.
George Benson Thank you George I've always wonder about that because I can remember yeas ago making logs for birds with holes filled with peanut butter, nuts and fruit.
***** Right you are Dale, I do the same for my woodpeckers, creepers and other insect eating birds. I have my suet feeder as well as some longs with holes drilled into them that I pack with a peanut butter suet dough that I make from flower, cornmeal, shorting, peanut butter, peanuts & raises. Best wishes...
Birds don't get salt and sugar in their normal diet and they shouldn't be given any either. Its not hard to make your own peanut mix to add, without the need for unhealthy store bought versions. Peanut butter itself is just blitzed peanuts
I used to make it like you do except that the sunflower seed would always float to the top. I ddnt like that so since then whatever I add to my mix I will first freeze long enough to where it thickens but I can stilll mix it together better. In that way the seeds are mixed thruout , I like that way best.
So I came for the recipe, and instead had my mind blown by the way you had the suet cage chained around the post. Brilliant. I don’t have a good place to hang my suet cage which only has a little “S” hook, no chain, and always struggled with a solution. Never thought of using wire and strapping it to my tree or fence instead of hanging it. **forehead smack** 🤦♀️ Thank you!! :)
Frank M The birds love them and so do the raccoons unfortunately. They are active in this mild weather and they took a whole cake the other night I need to make some more.
Great vid!!! Thanks for the info.@LoriL The green feeders hes using seem to be the same ones sold at Home Depot. They're very cheap and sturdy. If you want to spend the money though Wild Birds Unlimited has some very good recycled plastic suet feeders that are guaranteed for life. Just an FYI.
Robert J Bulmer Jr Thank you the suet feeders that I us are plastic covered metal I still have to wire them to the bird table or the raccoons steal them suet feeder and all.
Wow! You're really on the edge of the Deep Woods. Very informative video. I have a place in northern Wisconsin back in the woods I'll be moving up to in several years, and I'm somewhat of a bird nerd, and I plan on trying my hand at making suet cakes myself. Thanks for posting!
I bet the birds will enjoy those suet cakes. I didn't realize the feeder was that large. The one I was thinking of building would have been smaller. I'm glad you put the suet cake in. I have a better idea what size to build my feeder now.Thanks for sharing.
Watched both your videos. Thank you for posting. We've purchased the suet bird seed cakes previously. I'll make them from now on. Your seed cakes look Great! Much better than the store bought.
Bless you dear Dale,for loving,caring,and feeding these little feathered TREASURES,that have difficulty to find food in the frozen mother earth. LOVE RULES XXX
Thank you. I'm no expert but I think you would find birds that would eat them, the main issue might be the warm weather though. I only put them out in winter because it is just animal fat and seed so in warm weather it would spoil and go rancid very quickly, in hot weather I'm sure it would just melt.
Of course! My brain must have been a little off lol! Our nights are now cooler (50's), but the days have been in the low 70's, probably too warm for the suet cakes. Oh well, I can always just enjoy watching your birds enjoying them :)
Very nice vid! Such happy birdies. I calculate that your suet cakes only cost you about $0.85 each. And like you said a lot more quality feed in those than in the commercial ones.
Nice vid I am looking forward to making my own suet for my first time. I find the store stuff keeps getting more expensive and doesn't have hardly any seeds or nuts in it. They cheap out and charge max prices. Nice job on the suet cakes.
Thank you. I have two of these bird tables this is the larger of the two. They are just something that I knocked together out of scrap lumber so I'm sure the birds will appreciate whatever size you build.
Congratulations. I don't think anyone ever is ready when they first start out but starting with larger birds you have eliminated some of the headaches. Back when I was a meat eater I raised a few turkeys the commercial big white breed. My idea was to have one fresh for thanksgiving and another for Christmas. Well the thanksgiving thing worked fine but the commercial breed has been bred to grow fast by Christmas it was too big for the oven. Looking forward to video of your birds.
I enjoyed your video. You make it look so easy to prepare. The birds must love you! You could use all natural, unsalted chunky peanut butter without additives. I use vegetable shortening which I heard birds prefer and won't go rancid. Does the suet you use melt in the summer heat? I have multiple bird feeders and view many varieties of lovely birds here in the South.
You can make your own peanut butter in your blender, Just add bit of peanut oil or coconut oil to make it easier to blend. Good video. I enjoy seeing your birds very much.
here is the southern, US you can buy peanut butter cakes, and they the birds love it. there is a man on youtube called "the boss of the swamp", he builds a lot of bird houses, and has two cabins, one of them he built one belonged to his family, you may like watching him. the cakes are a $1. here that is with peanut butter.
They look great! I am sure the birds are just going to love them. I bet you could add some dried fruit like raisins to the mix as well. I will have a go at making some of them myself. Because as you say they are so much better than commercially bought ones, and cheaper too! Thank you Dale :)
I think if you just save the fat from any meat you buy, freeze it and render that, youll save a bunch of money. I know that when I make soup stock the fat floats on top and after refrigeration forms a nice disc of fat on top which can be used for this. Also peanut butter is in a lot of seed cakes, no problem for the birds to consume.
Do you have a cat/dog that you could feed the meat to? Or a friend/ neighbor that eats meat that could save fat for you. I give many garden and food scraps to a friend of mine for his chickens....It just seems a waste to buy fat for that price. If its just to hold the seeds in a block when its cold Id try gelatin.
Excellent video! One suggestion: if you have a meat grinder, you can cut up the beef tallow and send it through the grinder. A LOT more fat will render out that way. If you don't have a meat grinder, just cut up the tallow into chunks. In any case, feeding the leftovers to the ravens is a wonderful suggestion.
Thank you for this guide Dale, very helpful. I only seem to get starlings, goldfinches and sparrows. Some Jackdaws now and then too. Used to get some mean old seagulls too that stole everything!
What birds a re native you over there? Do you see any special ones? I hung some coconut fat feeders today. When they are depleted I shall use your video as reference for my new batch! Could you add plain crushed peanuts and dried fruit to that mix?
I had a pair of Northern Cardinals today they have stayed with me for the last three winters they used to be just an occasional in this area. Other than them the birds at the feeders right now are Gold Finch in their winter plumage, Mourning Doves, various sparrows , Juncos, Chick-a-dees, and Nuthatches. Adding the fruit and nuts sounds like a good idea.
I know this video was posted quite sometime ago, but I wanted to thank you for it! I just recently started feeding my neighborhood birds and because it’s starting to get cold here in north east Ohio, I bought a suet cake holder and a duet cake. I like the idea of giving them a fresher, more seed packed option. I don’t know what kind of birds I have, but I think they are sparrows. Anyway, what are your thoughts about adding dried fruit? I have some dried cranberries and apricots in my freezer. I was thinking about chopping them up in my food processor and adding it to the mix. I’d love your advice.
Thanks, no wasn't any problem at all I think adding the seed cooled it quite a bit. Actually I think if I let it cool more before I put it in the trays so that it started to thicken it would have a better mix of the seed, this way all of the sunflower seed floated on top.
Thank you. The woodpeckers seem to like the ones with seed too or maybe they are just eating the suet. We have the Downy, Hairy, and in the past couple of years we have started getting the Red Bellied Woodpecker.
Wonderful video. I've always wondered how the cakes are made, and your homemade ones are way better than the commercial varieties. They fit perfectly in the holder, too! Do you know if birds only eat suet cakes in very cold winter locations, or would they enjoy them in milder winter locals like mine? I'm asking because I'd like to make some, but wouldn't want them to go to waste if no birds would be interested.
I've always been concerned about the safety of the suet cakes in stores they never have a sell by date on them so you don't know how long they have been on the shelf.
Thank you Lois. I agree and I'm sure I have done it lots over the years I didn't do any research on the topic myself just passed along what the person left in a comment. I can't imagine that the small amount of salt that a bird is going to get from a bit of peanut-butter would do any serious damage.
We got all the ingredients! we'll follow the instructions. Its winter here and its been pretty cold for the last couple of days. I'm sure once the birds get familiar with the food/location we'll get a long line up of birds and plenty of joy to watch them eating. Its too bad that here we can't find the wide selection of bird feeders houses you have in Canada & USA. Kind regards
You’re a good man. I don’t know about the salt and its effect on wild birds, but buying unsalted roasted peanut in bulk s and wild bird seed mix shouldn’t be too difficult.
No I've never done that but I'll bet the hens would love. It got up to 6 degrees here yesterday and I think it will be mild this afternoon to it is minus 1 now at 10AM.
From watching some of the homesteading sites, it seems that if you grind the lump of fat, it will render more. I’ve been adding chopped dried fruit to the mix. Don’t know if it’s doing much good but it seems to disappear. The fruit is organic and really not “pretty” in baking. Besides i buy it at Costco and comes in a life time supply. Nice to know someone else takes care of the ravens.
Thanks Steve. Someone suggested mixing bacon grease with scratch feed for the hens and I think they would love it. If there is any truth to what the guy told me about salt in peanut butter not being a good thing for the wild birds I guess there would be the same issue with bacon fat. That said I didn't research the salt issue just accepted what the guy said. Lots of snow around but nice and mild here this week.
Hi from MAINE:)I too like to feed the birds and enjoy watching them..I never heard that salt hurts the birds?huh..I have been feeding my birds PB and they seem to like it.Thanks for sharing.
It looked like your seed separated and you could have put twice as much feed in each cake and there for made more cakes for your $2. - thanks for the video
I think what happened is the lighter sunflower seed floated to the surface. When I make them now I don't pour it in the moulds until is starts to set and thicken up that way I can mix the seed better and get a more even distribution of the different kinds of seed.
If you secure your suet feeder to the bottom of your other seed feeder the smaller birds will have more of a chance to eat it, since larger birds have a hard time hanging horizontally.
The salt issue is genuine. Birds cannot process salt efficiently and it can harm them. I discovered this after giving the birds potato chips that were out of date and a friend who knows about birds called in and saw them on the ground and told me about the excess salt thing.
Sounds like a great recipe, I never knew about the Peanut butter either. I think people do it all the time.I know I have a couple of times. Wonder how bad it would really hurt them? You would not think they would be eating that much of it to bother them. Just wondering. Great video!
Did you make the cage that u put the suet into or did you buy that somewhere? Great post by the way, I'm gonna make some for my birds! Do you have to use beef suet? Can u use just bacon fat? Thanks
+Sarah R. Trenchard The cage is available at most feed stores and pet departments, Walmart etc. I used beef suet . Not sure about bacon fat I would be concerned that it might have too much salt in it.
RU-vid thinks you are spam. If you ask in the meat department they usually have it, sometimes it is in the frozen department. It's one of the ingredients of plum pudding so most stores would have stocked it for the christmas season. Any meat department that is cutting there own sides of beef have got it even if they aren't trying to sell it, it surrounds the kidney area.
Hi I didn't do any research to see if that claim is valid or not it was just a comment that someone made on my previous video . What they were saying is salt isn't good for the birds and peanut butter has salt in it. Personally I doubt if the small amount of salt that they would get from some peanut butter in a suet cake would do them any harm.
Very good video and yes peanut butter is not good news for birds,there's lots of recipes on RU-vid that use peanut butter and please don't add it into your recipes, salt kills us all FACT.
Not all peanut butter contains salt! Natural peanut butter (no salt added) helps provide the birds with the fat and protein that keeps them warm during our cold Canadian winters.
thegrouchyfish health food shops and bodybuilding websites also have tubs of natural peanut butter (up to 5kg, nothing but blennded up peanuts, nothing else) have to give it a stir to seperate the oils on top mind you but all of it is great for humans and wildlife
looks so simple to do but I don't think I've ever seen suet ( referred as) in the store. I've seen lard but that is pork fat, although it's not usually on my list,lol.
You can get peanut butter with less salt and the amount of peanut butter used in a big batch of suet is not going to harm the birds.. Bread is not good for birds.. And considering they get into garbage and fast food waste, that's harmful. I make soft and hard suet for "my" birds and squirrels and all is well :)
July 2008 and almost 3.5 million views to date . The first video was in Santiago de Compostella in Spain: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-K5h2wBBANNI.html
You are mistaken, peanut butter is not unhealthy for birds, in fact is very beneficial as are fatty diets.... especially for creeper species and Wintering birds... its need to produce the energy needed to say warm among other reasons.
Peanut Butter is an ideal source of fat, calories and protein for birds... and is a fabulous energy source. It’s also a great source for many other nutrients and necessary minerals such as Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Magnesium, etc., all ESSENTIAL for a wild bird's healthy diet.
In Finland those blue tits come and take sunflower seed from the feeder but they always take them away to a tree branch to eat them. It looks like your birds have exactly the same behavior
you can buy unsalted peanut butter.I don't think there is that much salt in peanutbutter.all critters LOVE it. I use it. haven't killed a biird yet.' as for commerciallly sold beef suet,I won't buy it.too many hormone @ antibiotics shots ginen to beef raised today. I will stick to lard.and peanut butter. like your recipe.
It's best to use salted peanut butter. Sodium is a necessary mineral need by birds, as well as mammals that may also consume the suit. Peanut Butter also provides other nutrients and necessary minerals such as Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, etc., which are most essential for wild birds.
