Peanut Butter Suet to Attract a Variety of Birds

by Lois Breneman - Heart to Heart - 2018

This recipe attracts a wide variety of birds to our sundeck and provides entertainment and opportunities to capture birds in action via photographs as well.

Birds that love this suet recipe are:
Cardinals
Bluebirds
Carolina Wrens
House Wrens
Nuthatches
Red-bellied Woodpeckers
Downy Woodpeckers
Tufted titmice
Black-capped Chickadees
Mockingbirds
Bluejays
Catbirds
Goldfinches
House Finches
Sparrows

We've also had starlings and crows from time to time, but not often.  When they come, I just bring the suet inside for a day or so and the problem is gone. 

I never found the need to measure when I made this suet until several people asked for the recipe.  Basically, it should be the consistency of playdough.  I use the least inexpensive ingredients and figured the cost of this recipe to be about $10, which is certainly well worth the enjoyment it brings!

Peanut Butter Suet
1 large can of shortening (2 lb, 10 oz.)
1 large container of peanut butter (4 lb.)
1 bag of all-purpose flour (5 lb.) plus at least 6 more cups
   (Cornmeal or other flour may be used - even buggy flour but no salt or other ingredients)

Directions:
1.  In a large basin, cream the shortening and peanut butter with a hand mixer. 
2.  Gradually add in the flour, mixing well before adding more.  If you can mix in a little more flour than a 5 lb. bag and 6 cups, go ahead.  You may need to use a large metal spoon toward the end of mixing.
3.  The birds like it either way but it's less sticky if you can incorporate a little more flour.

I used to form the suet into cakes, but find it's easier to store it in empty shortening cans and scoop it out onto small dishes as needed.  I serve it on small Pfaltzgraff snack trays that I got for 29 cents each at an outlet, but saucers would work as well.  Press the suet onto the dish.

Because of squirrels and raccoons, I bring in the suet each evening and set it out every morning.  So far we have seen no bears on our deck, and we'd like to keep it that way.  When I set it out in the morning the birds hear the kitchen door and sometimes they are at the feeders before I get inside the house.  I hope I'm not turning them into "welfare birds" as my husband sometimes jokingly calls them, but he enjoys watching them and learning the different varieties and their antics.

As far as beautiful songbirds though, if you make this suet, they will come!  They much prefer this over suet on which I've wasted my money.

Below are just a few photos I've taken from inside my kitchen as the suet attracts a good variety of birds to our sundeck, trees, and backyard! 

Another fun hobby has developed from making this suet and photography.  I enjoy making handmade cards from some of the photos, although I make too many cards to send so I package one or more in cellophane envelopes to use as little unexpected gifts.
Happy Birdwatching!

Peanut Butter Suet for Birds

by Lois Breneman - Revised 2014

Carolina wrens, house wrens, nuthatches, tufted titmice, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers, mockingbirds, catbirds, white-throated sparrows, house finches, and goldfinches especially love peanut butter suet.  But this past year we had new welcome visitors feasting on this mixture - bluebirds!  

Peanut butter and shortening are good cold weather treats for birds because they need extra fat in their diet to keep their tiny bodies warm, but they also love it throughout the year.

Plain peanut butter is perfectly safe for birds as well, and they will not choke on it, according to Birds and Blooms. 

You can make up your own mixture to save a lot of money.  Mix shortening and peanut butter together, using an electric mixer or food processor.  Then add flour and/or cornmeal until it is easy to form into blocks to fit into a suet feeder.  You can even use cornmeal or flour that has become buggy, and the least expensive shortening and peanut butter will do just fine.  The birds love the less expensive brands just a much as costlier ones.

The consistency should be sort of like Playdough, but if it's crumbly, the birds love that just as well.  I store it in empty shortening cans or wrap the blocks in plastic wrap and put several blocks in the waxed liners that I save from cereal boxes.  They can be stored at room temperature for a few months, although they will keep even longer if refrigerated or frozen. 

Do not add any water or it will become hard as a rock.  Guess how I know that? 

I will warm you that raccoons, squirrels, and bears dearly love suet too!  The squirrels steal the suet in broad daylight, but the raccoons and bears come at night, reach right into the feeder and dig it out!  Then in the morning you may see greasy little raccoon prints everywhere, as we have.  Thank goodness, we haven't seen bears yet!

To solve this problem, I asked my husband if he'd build a wire cage surrounding our suet feeder, extending the space between the suet and the outside of the cage, with the wire bent to create spaces large enough for the smaller birds to go inside and feast.  This works real well, and neither raccoons nor squirrels can touch it now!  If your feeder is not bear or raccoon-proof, I'd advise bringing it inside at night.

Grapefruit or orange halves also make good birdfeeders, although they are not predator proof.  Hanging from your trees, they will keep the birds quite happy and well fed.

Right now I use an old square plastic freezer container to hold the peanut butter suet, with two metal skewers sticking through it, and fishing line to hang it from a tree branch.  I chose fishing line, rather than thicker cording, so it wouldn't show up as much in photographs.

Sometimes I fill a custard cup with suet and set it up right on the other side of my kitchen window.  The shelf on our deck on the other side of my window was a great idea of my husband's!  I raise up the custard cup, so I can see it as I sit at the kitchen table working on the computer with my camera handy!  To keep predators from eating it at night, I bring the custard cup inside.

You will have lots of inexpensive entertainment in store for you and your family by feeding the birds!  Have fun, and get your camera ready!

Suet Bird Feeders

Thanks to RoseAnn Kirsch in Nebraska for this great tip and story!

        We make our suet bird feeders a little different than yours. We melt the fat and peanut butter in a large pan in the oven, then add as much birdseed (instead of flour or cornmeal)  as will stick together in the melted mix.  Next we let it cool some, then put a mesh onion or fruit bag inside a plastic grocery bag ~ to make less of a mess with this project!  Then we fill the mesh bag and tie it shut to hang in a tree with a bent wire hanger.  Any 'leftovers' in the plastic bag can be pressed to the outside of the mesh bag or sprinkled on the ground.  It won't be wasted. 
        This mixture works great for children to make as gifts, too.  Tie a heavy string, to use as a hanger, to the top of a pinecone.  Then pack the seed mixture tightly into the cone.  Put into a sandwich baggie, leaving string hang out so it won't get greasy, and give as gifts to folks who like bird watching.   :o)
        With the price of food rising for us humans, it may be more difficult for folks to feed their winter birds as once accustomed.  This idea may help some who may not be able to otherwise. 
        Instead of buying suet or fat, I save fat for feeding the birds. Through the year, I skim the fat from the variety of meats I cook, putting it into containers and either freezing them or keeping in our 2nd 'fridge.  The mixture doesn't seem to hinder the birds from coming each year. I am glad to not be wasting anything and still be able to feed the birds!  I think the fat and peanut butter added makes the value of the bird seed go further, as they get more calories from it this way, and it isn't scratched away as it often is out of a dry feeder.
        We do this every year and hang it out the kitchen window and sure enjoy watching the variety of birds that come each day. 
        My brother-in-law made a large, crude suet feeder to put in their big tree.  He laid out chicken wire and when they cleaned their deer, just threw the scraps of fat & suet onto the wire.  When done, he wrapped it and secured it shut and hung it.  My sister worried about odors, but it was consumed by the time warm spring breezes blew.  Occasionally he had to lower it to push the wire in closer for them to reach to the remaining suet.  The birds loved it and seemed to invite their friends! It was a good way to use the scraps from processing their deer, and the wire could be reused if wanting to make another the next year.  Am not sure about the squirrels as they only had suet in it...?
        We don't have a lot of squirrels here, but I do have a funny story for you.  We have chickens and they have their trough inside the coop.  One summer I noticed a squirrel going up the side of the coop into the open window and leaving with corn from the trough.  Well, I thought he could get his winter supplies elsewhere, so we put wire over the windows.  Not to be deterred, the squirrel was then noted to be seen running in and out the little chicken door!  We laughed and laughed, and figured perhaps he did need the free lunch after all!