Social Distance Learning Project: Homemade Suet

Suet is a high-calorie bird food best reserved for winter months or the cool, early days of spring. As the weather warms the suet could melt, so it’s best to place it outside during a stretch of cooler days.

Video Tutorial: homemade suet video

YOU’LL NEED:

Lard or bacon fat, peanut butter, rolled oats, cornmeal, birdseed, flour, mixing bowl, paper cups, a mesh vegetable bag, and some twine or string.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt ½ cup of bacon fat and ½ cup of peanut butter in a microwave.

2. Add 1 cup rolled oats, 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup birdseed and ½ cup flour then mix well.

3. Spoon the mix into paper cups and place in the freezer.

4. Once they have solidified, take the cups out of the freezer and tear away the outside paper. Drop the suet cakes into the mesh bag. Use twine to secure the top of the bag and hang it outside from a tree branch. Observe which birds stop by to nibble!

Optional: a simpler version of this project can be made with peanut butter or lard mixed with birdseed.

LEARNING EXTENSIONS:

Keep a notepad of the various birds that the suet attracts. You may observe chickadees, finches, wrens, woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals and nuthatches. How does each of them feed? What calls do they make to alert others of the treat? You may also get a bunch of squirrels visiting the suet cakes, too. They tend to be very aggressive going after food!

Sponsored by National Grid.