Home made fat balls

[Dynamo]

Does anyone have some sort of a recipe for making fat balls for wild birds? I did try making some with some old fat from the chip pan and seed, but they just melted when it got warm. I'm thinking that maybe I could mix in some old bread and see what happens then. Anything would be better than paying for the things if I can make them myself.

[Glutton4...]

I don't think they need fat balls this time of year - only in the winter, so your recipe should be OK.

[Snadger]

Spotted one of the chook keepers at the allotment making a 'sort of' fat ball for his chooks.

He used a galvanised bucket with a lump of wire with a hook at the top placed in said bucket before he added the filling. The filling was a mixture of cooked veg peelings etc, chopped raw swede.carrot and maggoty cabbage and god kbnows what else...........all bound together with what looked like dripping pored over it and mixed in with it.

When cooled, boiling water was poured over outside of bucket to allow the large 'plug' to be lifted out and hung in the chook run.

I bet my chooks would enjoy something like that, especially in winter, if I ever get round to giving it a go!

[rustylady]

G4 is right, birds shouldn't need supplementary feeds at this time of year, certainly not fat balls. However, for the winter you can make them. I find suet works best. Buy some Atora, melt in a pan and mix in whatever you have - breadcrumbs, raisins, grated cheese, etc. Make a small hole in the bottom of an empty yoghurt pot or similar, thread a length of string through the hole and put your mix in the pot. Leave to cool and then hang on your feeder.

[mothhawk]

For the winter, I melt together 500g vegetable lard (I've tried animal lard but the little birds seem to prefer the veg one) and one block of creamed coconut. Into that I stir about 250g of chopped peanuts (whizzed in the FP), a large handful each of sultanas and sunflower hearts, then add as many porage oats as the fat will soak up, about a kilo bagful.

This makes enough to fill about 6 empty coconut shells, packed down very firmly, or you can store it in an ice cream container.

If I am starting a fresh coconut shell hanger then I grate the coconut meat up fine and add to the fat mixture.

BTW, coconut shell hangers are very easy to make - coconuts have a natural fracture line about a third of the way up from the pointy end (the end without the "eyes").

If you put the nut on a hard surface (I use the path outside) and tap fairly firmly with a hammer around the coconut at this point, the bottom third will break off easily. Then poke out one of the "eyes" with a skewer, and push a string or wire through.

[Jo Sara]

Turns out the birds do need feeding in summer. Although, by the looks of it, it's adding to their normal diet, rather than being a lifeline. I will be trying the 'make your own fat ball' recipes. I have starlings in my garden and they can easily go through 3 fat balls a day, if I put that many out at a time. They are so bloomin' greedy.

The RSPB: News: Feeding birds in summer: mythbusting

[endymion]

Right or wrong, we feed birds right through the year and always have done. Apart from the few veggy growers, many of the gardens round us are quite sterile, with lots of decking and non-native 'specimen' planting that offers little to wildlife.

They take a heck of a lot of food, and only seem to slow down when they go through their moult - which seems to be just starting because we're finding large feathers on the lawn.

We make our own fat balls by mixing animal suet with budget oatmeal (it helps bind it), seeds and chopped sultanas. It's pushed into coconut shells or moulded into pillar shapes (line a split washing up liquid bottle with clingfilm) to fit into the fat ball feeders - it seems to last a bit longer that way.

One bonus of attracting, and keeping, the birds has been the "swarm" (how else can you describe them?) of long tailed tits that cleared the blackfly from the broad beans.

[Two_Sheds]

The RSPB say that you should never use vegetable fat for birds: it's too greasy and covers their feathers with potentially disastrous results: they can't fly. Also veg fats don't have all the necessary amino acids or whatever they are, nutrients, for wild birds. source: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpin...ood/index.aspx

I make my fat balls from beef suet, melted into Xmas pudding bowls, then frozen until needed. It's the cleanest way I've found of making them

[Two_Sheds]

the "swarm" (how else can you describe them?) of long tailed tits

flock ?


too few letters

[Glutton4...]

I wasn't saying don't feed them in the summer. I was saying don't feed them fat in the summer.

[Two_Sheds]

I wasn't saying don't feed them in the summer. I was saying don't feed them fat in the summer.

The RSPB's line is this: "in summer birds will still be grateful for extra treats, as many are busy raising their young. The RSPB recommends little and often, and says that birds probably won’t eat quite as much [food from birdtables] as during the colder months" (because there's more plentiful wild food out there like fruit & insects)

[Dynamo]

Thanks for the advice folks. I'll definately be trying to make some sort of bird cake soon. I had no intention of using vegetable fats. My girlfriend uses only dripping in her chip pan and doesn't believe in using it for too long so that often gets chucked out, so I'll probably clean that up by mixing it with boiling water and letting the good fat go to the surface and leave all the muck in the bottom of the bowl in the water before I use that in a recipe.

I'm glad its okay to feed the brids in the summer. I always figured that it was misguided advice not to feed them then as long as they are being fed the proper foods. I don't agree with the birds only eating little and often though. They go mad on my bird frame for the fat balls and seed that I put out and easily eat five or six fat balls per day plus about half a dozen seed feeders too. They rarely touch peanuts though so I don't bother with them, and my niger seed feeder which was used quite regular by a couple of goldfinches earlier in the summer now stands at a level where its been for about a month because the goldfinches have vanished. I've also tried putting fruit out for the birds but again, that never gets touched, so its just fat balls and seed for them really, though I do give them mealworms occasionally. The trouble with them though is that the starlings come in and gobble them all up in quick time before the blackbird can get near them.

[Two_Sheds]

I feed my blackbirds a handle of soaked raisins/sultanas a day. I don't want them to be completely dependent on me for food: they have to forage for themselves, and teach their young to forage for themselves

[endymion]

... the "swarm" (how else can you describe them?) of long tailed tits

flock ?

I know it should be a generic "flock" but the way they descend on the garden, chattering away to each other at full volume, and generally getting in the way of the regulars seems to deserve a much better term, my calling them a 'swarm' seems a bit harsh.

[Dynamo]

A Shenanigen of Starlings? That fits very well indeed lol.