In case anyone had the same diet problem as me. The squirrels here in my yard won’t go within 12 feet of the CS hot suet, not even for a taste. I’ve been adding 1 cake to all of my large platform and woodpecker cages. 💯 effective and the birds all just ignore it or devour it. 🥰
I recently got into bird watching because a surgery kept me stuck at home last month. You are so good at delivering information in a concise way. Thanks for all you do.
Hello, I have used some of your knowledge on another hobby. I have had trouble with chipmunks eating sprouts in my greenhouse, so today I mixed hot sauce into my spray water and watered my plants. Figured if it keeps squirrels from the feeders it just might work on chipmunks!
Thank you, Mark, for another great video!❤ For me personally, I don't like to feed my birds ingredients they won't find in nature, like hydrogenated vegetable or soybean oils (especially when its blended in with things they do eat). So when it gets too hot, I switch to mealworm cakes that are bonded with beef gelatin... And it's really simple to make your own if you have the time!🤗💖
Oddly enough, my Starling problem at suets is the worst in the spring and not as many at all in the winter, in NW Ohio anyway. The colder it gets the less starlings I have. Its been that way since I starting feeding around 2001 or so. They seem to flock up and stay in easy-picking area's like truck stops. But man when nesting starts it's a whole different deal. I just take suet down during spring, as much as I don't want to. Two days and they wipe a whole cake out.
Same in Nebraska, the spring is the worst. Then they dump their poop in my birdbaths. I bought a heavy duty caged suet feeder because the city coons tore my other ones day every night.
I have heard you can make your own suet cakes at home. Is that true?? I have always been interested in feeding suet, but the reason I have never done so is I was afraid it would make a royal mess. I might try it this Winter in maybe January and February. March can be pretty cold here, too, but most of the year it is warm to hot here. Right now we are in triple digits with high humidity. Some Summers in July and August we have 115F, and with the heat index, it pushes us over 120F. (Wish I lived in Maine! I hate hot weather!) We often get temps in the 90s F even as late as November. I can recall a couple of Decembers in the last few years where I walked at the park in shorts and a t-shirt and felt warm. Every Autumn I wish for a cold, crisp Autumn and a really cold Winter. If it does not get really cold where you live, a lot of pests never die off. For instance, I used to keep show horses. I only had to tube worm them twice a year in Oklahoma, and I would paste worm them every three or so months in between. Moved to the Texas Gulf area, and whoa!!! I had to tube at least twice per year and paste every two months. Often ended up tubing 3X per year. Worming is really hard on the horses. After all, you are pumping poison into them, but it is a necessary evil because they can quickly die from worms. Vet said the difference in the two locations was it simply did not get cold enough down around the Gulf Coast area to kill off a lot of parasites. Thank heaven I no longer live in that area anymore.
You can. Many folks have their own formulas they use. The internet has many homemade ideas. I did it years ago and found that it smelled up the whole place and was a lot of trouble to store, etc. Cakes are simple.
Here in New England we use simple pure suet in the colder months and C&S Hot Pepper in the warmer months. It is never perfect, but this seems to work best to limit the number of starlings, squirrels, and sparrows, which helps draw the Downy Woodpeckers and the occasional Northern Flicker.
@@MarksBackyardBirds I have never even heard of pure suet. What is it? Just the fat from the beef?? I am mostly vegetarian myself, and I am not thrilled to feed animal meat/fat, but I realise some animals have to have it, e.g. I feed chicken and eggs to my dog because as a carnivore, he needs the protein. I wish I could find a way around it, though.
@@user-lz6dm5lk9y I explain what suet is in the first 40 seconds of the video. We primarily provide it as a nutritional substitute for insects in cold weather. Shelled Peanuts are the substitute most feed instead of suet. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iEWayBLaO34.html should help with that.
@@MarksBackyardBirds Yes, I listened to the entire video. I realise suet has the rendered beef fat from around internal organs, and it could contain peanuts and other things, but "pure sue" is just made of the beef fat and nothing else? That is the point on which I was unclear.
@@user-lz6dm5lk9y Yes. Pure Suet cakes are 100% suet. No other ingredients. They get very brittle in very cold conditions and very messy in hot weather so we sell very little of it anymore.
Thank you for the information. I recently put up a peanut butter suet cake combo from CS, and the starlings are the main ones enjoying it. Prior to that I had some kind of a suet and bird seed combo and the flickers were enjoying it. I think I'll go back to that one. 😊
I must have special starlings as they hang upside down on the bottom feeder. I had to get a starling trap as I had flocks coming in. I make own suet. Our meat cutter sells it cheap and it only takes a little work to render it.
I have learned that Starlings are the Squirrels of the bird world; good luck stopping them because they adapt real quick. They also are garbage cans with wings, like vultures. There's nothing they won't try, especially in flocks.
Hi. I've purchased the peanut treat from you before and the birds love it! New dilemma, however. I've moved and now have squirrels. Is there a hot peanut treat (not no-melt delight ... the birds here don't like the no-melt for some reason) that you can recommend? Or, will "painting" the suet with hot sauce before hanging it help keep those cute, yet pesky, squirrels away?
As long as it is a cool temperature, especially refrigerated, you can keep it for several months but unrefriderated, I wouldn't advise of couple of months.
@@MarksBackyardBirds Thank you! I have a couple tubs that have been hanging around inside for a year. They are sealed, but don't have a date on them. Could it harm the birds, or will it just be unappealing to them? It's tree Icing.
Avoid Royal Wing suet. Sat in the tree for weeks. The CS is fire in Maryland. Birds devour a cake every other day here. Peanut Delight, Orange, High Energy, Woodpecker are their favs. Carolina wrens like the Peanut Delight layed on the ground (no cage) in the winter. They tear it up.
@@MarksBackyardBirds yeah tell me about it. Obviously, those people don’t have a life and all they know how to do is sit there and complain to people. lol
I don't mind quality ingredients like nuts, fruit and insects but just not a bunch. Suet is the ultimate award. Most companies don't use real fruit, just fruit juice.
The birds were im at seem to prefer the orange delight suet right now. Bad about four peanut balls in a triple feeder. They really just took their time with it. I cleaned the suet cage and put on that orange delight in a suet cage by its self. They are destroying it compared to the oeanut suet in the triple feeder.
