Everybody likes our suet cakes......

[googler]

Tail end of 2009, we started putting out suet & fat cakes for our back garden visitors. Prior to this it was mainly seed mix and crumbed digestive biscuits, with the occasional bacon and fat scraps.

However, we got a couple of the branded 'Bill Oddie' fat cakes, with the embedded mealworms in the mix, and got a metal feeder cage that takes the flat suet cakes that are about4 inches square. Both of these are hanging-style, and we expected them to attract the birds that normally cling to the seed feeders - Tits, Chaffinhes and the like. However, they're a hit with most everyone in the garden.......

Today the Collared Doves seemed to have taken a liking, and at one point an impatient Starling was perched above the Dove, twiching away and almost stamping his feet in frustration at having to wait.......

The Starlings were queueing three deep to get their turn earlier on.

The Magpie can't cling on, but would launch itself at the fat cake from a perch about a metre away, and either chip a bit off with the impact, or dislodge a piece which he'd pick up off the ground.

He seemed to have picked this style up from the Blackbirds, who had been at first launching themselves at it from ground level to chip away at it, but later discovered their perching legs, and now hang on as well as the tits and other clingers.....

A Blackcap is also now a regular visitor, never seen here before the fat cakes, and the Starlings also made their first appearance on our patch since the change in the menu.

I'll post some photos later.

[posie]

I'm going to try some of those..!

Posie..

[Jez]

Originally Posted by posie

I'm going to try some of those..!

Posie..

yuk, I think I'll stick to nut roast myself!

[posie]

Originally Posted by Jez

yuk, I think I'll stick to nut roast myself!

..I meant for the BIRDS, Jez, not for myself....if you think i'm going to hang by one foot from the wire birdcake holder, or balance on the perch like a tightrope walker at the circus, you're wrong.......Posie..

[posie]

To get back on thread, thankyou for that info, Googler, I'm going to buy some for the birds, 'cos they obviously like it. I suppose there's something in it for all tastes. You didn't say how much they cost. ...Posie..

[shaun a]

I know the wife makes her own and it works out a lot cheaper than going and buying the ones that are already made,and the plus side is you can add anything you like to them

[posie]

Yes Shaun, that's what I was thinking, but if these work so well, I thought I'd get some and either read list of ingredients, or look at it and work it out. I think at this time of year we have to make sure we aren't filling baby birds up with non nutricious food. I like to get as near as I can to the natural food, which of course is varied from species to species, or type to type...I would be interested in your recipe, if you'll share it..Posie..

[shaun a]

I will ask the wife when she gets home later I don't think its a state secret .I know the main bulk is just suet you buy from any supermarket,then just add your seed or mealies,anything really,but I shall ask her later.

[Cowgirl]

Probably a stupid question, but is suet the same as lard and is beef dripping the same as lard?

I've been using lard (animal), hope this is the right thing

[shaun a]

Suet is a fatty tissue that gathers around a cows kidney area,you can use lard but I wouldn't and this should only be used as a last resort and in the winter months,as lard can melt and even go rancid in the warmer months