This is my first attempt at making suet...I feed wild bird food year round, though not much action this time of year. I'm in Wisconsin, in the city.

I warmed the lard on the stove, added a jar of peanut butter, some dried prunes, stale sunflower seeds, quaker oatmeal, and cracked peanuts from the shell, and some wild bird seed. I forgot to add sugar and oil, but I'm assuming the oil in the peanut butter will suffice. I left the mix outside in a pan to harden in the colder weather. Not sure if I used too much lard.

I have a suet cage that I've only recently tried, with store purchased suet. I just put it out this winter in a location I haven't previously fed the birds in, and so far, no action in over a month.

We also have chicken hawks aka another name I can't think of, but the foliage from the trees in the summer usually gives my other birdies shelter from these hunters. Since winter, I've seen chicken hawks twice hanging out by my bird seed feeder, and picking through seed from the ground there. I don't want to feed my birds, making a meal of them for the chicken hawks. Anything I can do? The only "sheltered" place I have for them is by my window where I have the suet cage, but like I said, no action.

How do I make a suet log? Or, where can I find one? I don't recall seeing them at our local hardware store, but then again I wasn't looking. If I try to make my own, do I need to incorporate perches?

And, where/how do I store the remaining suet? Can I freeze the unused portions?

I asked my local ornithologist from the Sate Audubon Society about adding sugar and she laughingly said, "Sugar to taste, although I have never personally tasted it, therefore I don't add sugar".

I am 62 yrs old and I have been making suet since I was about 6yrs old, but to be totally honest, I don't think i ever made it the same way twice in all that time. There is no absolute recipe, it is basically just a simple project of using whatever you happen to have on hand at the time.

In its simplest state you can get raw suet from a butcher and hang that. The fat that you trim off beef or ham, whether raw or cooked is also excellent just as it is. In fact, after thanksgiving I took all the thick fat from the turkey roaster and made a suet cake with that and it worked great, not to mention that last week I took the raw fat we trimmed off a chicken before cooking and put that in one of my suet cages and that went big with the Red Belly Woodpeckers.

When making suet from Lard, begin by warming the lard just enough to soften it to the consistency of peanut butter (Do not liquify it). You then add in bird seed, peanuts, peanut butter, oatmeal, corn meal, stale cookies crumbs, crunched up potato chips, (especially crunched up stale Fritos), diced pieces of orange or grapefruit rinds, dried fruit or what ever else you may have at hand, there is no specific recipe and it you don't have all those ingredients, no problem, just use what you have. One thing that i have found that works very well is raw cranberries, both whole and dice up bits.

Some people prefer to mix it with a spoon or spatula while others such as myself just dive right in an mix it with my bare hands. Here again, there is no right or wrong way.

I have about 6 of the little plastic trays that commercial suet cakes are packed in, and i use them as mold to make my own suet cake to fit my cage type suet feeders.

You can also form the suet into a ball or log then hang it in a net bag such as the ones used to pack oranges or onions.

To make a suet log you just select a piece of dead wood with the bark still on it and use a drill with a 3/4" to 1-1/2" spade bit (whatever you have handy) and drill some holes about 1" deep, then pack the holes with your suet mix.

Some people add little dowels as perches but I find that the desirable birds that we like to attract to the suet feeders, I.E, Woodpeckers, Titmice, Nuthatches and Chicadee's are all very adept at hanging on tree bark, whereas the less desirable birds, such as starlings and Blue Jays have a bit of difficulty at hanging on the bark.

You can store excess suet cakes in the freezer but at my house freezer space is at a premium. I simply put then in metal coffee cans and set then on a shelf in my garden shed, Which at this time of year, is every bit as cold as my freezer. (The metal cans prevent mice form getting into them.)

Does it make that much difference if I have a log without bark? This was sitting behind our garage in our woodpile, weathered, so most the bark fell off. Do the perches deter the birds I want to attract? (I really don't know what I want to attract, this is new to me).

Now, about the location...

I'm wondering if I can hang this off my back airing porch (our rear entry way, which is technically our main entryway). What are the pros and cons to having the suet feeder next to your entryway? The only other option I have is to either place it in full view of the chicken hawks by my garage, OR hang it from my airing porch but then I have to deal with bird droppings (messy), OR from a branch on my lilac shrub next to my porch, but I read that suet feeders are better in a more open space.

I can swap this out for the cage feeder I have next to my window, but that's hanging from a shepards hook that isn't higher than 5 or 6 feet, easily accessible by squirrels or other animals.

Can anyone comment on my best option?

First off, rest assured that melting the lard did not harm it n any way. In fact, it would not matter if you cooked with it then saved the drippings. The only reason that we don't liquify it is because it is much easier to work with when its still in a semi paste form and you are less likely to get burned if it at or near room temperature.

I don't know who told you to put suet out in the open but from my experience the birds that are attracted to suet are primarily tree dwellers and prefer to have a moderate cover from larger predators such as the hawk you describe. Keep in mind that hawks are extremely fast but not highly maneuverable. They generally attack from a high perch like a military dive bomber however, just like the airplane they need a good straight line of attack to the quarry and a straight through avenue of escape. If you were to hang your feeder on the shepherds hook close to the side of the house and near the lilac bush the smaller birds could quickly dive into the lilac bush for cover and it would make it very difficult for the hawk to maneuver.

I would not hang the feeder near your back door if that is your primary entrance because every time someone enters or leaves it would scare the birds away and they may be very wary about returning.

However I have thought up one solution that works well for me and may prove to work well for you. Go to a "One Hour Photo" processing shop and ask the attendant to give you some empty 35mm film canisters. Make you suet mix and put it in the film cans. You can then snap the lids on the cans and store them at room temp.

Next get a roll of duct tape or a roll of light wire and attach a few of the cans to limbs on your lilac bush. You will be amazed at how fast the birds discover the suet and once they discover it, you can be sure they will tell their friends.

You will find lots of suet recipes here that list amounts
http://www.sialis.org/suet.htm
The accipiter referred to as a chicken hawk is usually the Coopers. To make a suet log, I found an appropriate sized log and used a hole saw to drill holes it in. Then I screwed an eyebolt into the top to hang it from. You do not need perches unless you're trying to make it easier for perching birds. Even then I've found that not many birds have trouble accessing it. I don't like to make it too easy or the Blue Jays would consume it all it five minutes. Do you have a tree you could hang it from? The birds need someplace to escape to if a predator appears. To make it easy, you can just press the suet into the crooks of a tree. You certainly can freeze the suet mixture. I make a big batch at a time and keep what I'll need for a few days in the refrigerator and freeze the rest.

I made the suet log over 3 years ago out of an old red Pine log and glued lots of perches and branches. It did not have much bark on it - which is fine, except that over time the log has darkened quite a bit, perhaps because of the oils in the suet mixture. Also, most of the perches and branches have broken and fallen off. This birds don't seem to care.

If you put perches on the log, this will enable many more birds to eat more easily. However, this isn't necessarily a good thing because with mine, it enables the Starlings and Blue Jays to hog the suet log, and it encourages House Sparrows.

My suet log is pole-mounted with a squirrel/raccoon baffle, so nothing gets onto the log but the birds.

Here's what the suet mixture looks like -

Some Bluebirds on the suet log a couple years ago. They don't eat that much on the suet log any more, because I usually spread crumbles in a tray for them.

Can you tell me what type of tray feeder you use? Whether it hangs from a tree, or is on a railing, etc.?

I want to add a tray feeder to what I have but am not sure what to use (there are several different types out there of course!) You have success with your feeders so any advice about this type would be great.

Thanks in advance -

Donna

P.S. - Great photo of the bluebirds. I have never seen a bluebird, ever, in real life, so your photos, mac60s, and others' have been so cool to see.

My trays and feeders are kind of a home-made hodgepodge. They are not going to win any aesthetic awards, but the birds don't care. One is a wire plant hanger that I sewed a piece of screen on the bottom using fishing line (where the Chickadee is perched). It hangs from a pole setup w/baffle. Very easy to clean out. The other is a seed tray that normally goes below a tube feeder but I just attached it to the pole under the suet log (where the Bluebird is perched). I spread suet crumbles and BOSS in these.

When you are new at this it can sometimes seem like you are bombarded by bird catalogues, emails, photos of what you "should" have for the birds - it really takes the fun out of it. I love what you did with the planter, and the way you have the suet log(which as I remember, you made yourself), with a tray under it, is cool.

I am going to enjoy using my imagination to come up with some tray feeders. As always, thank you so much for your inspiration Terrene!

Donna

Re: the tray feeders, metal screen or hardware cloth with a small grid would be excellent material for the bottom of a tray feeder, as it's sturdy (perhaps with cross-bracing), lets water and air flow through, and is so easy to clean out. I just bang or brush it and sometimes spray with the hose.

Yes I made the suet log, but since this one is getting delapidated, I've been designing a new one in my head but haven't gotten off the ole butt to make it yet. :)

Funny, as I'm sitting here about to tell you that I've had NO activity on my new log feeders for days, I see a female cardinal sitting in my tree, checking out the log feeders I have hanging on my porch. I'll try a few more days, and if no luck, then I'll move them. Our back door isn't high activity, especially this time of year, but I know if I move them to my garage overhang, those darn squirrels are going to get to them.

We made two suet feeders, one for us, one for my MIL. We got the 1 1/4" drill bit, but the bit started smoking, so we used our hammer drill and that was much easier. In looking at the perches in the pic above, they are much longer than mine. I think I used 3 inch dowels, drilled the holes and glued them in. I went half and half, some feeding holes have perches, others don't.

I have a ton of other birds at my regular feeders within the past few days. Most I've seen all season.

You are creating the equivalent of a watering hole in Africa ... a place that attracts prey and predators. If the idea bothers you, stop feeding.

Even without feeding stations, I have lots of bird species and occasionally one is taken by a hawk ... I find the feathers and feeding debris under the trees.