making suet

Many birds love suet, including chickadees, bluejays, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, northern flickers, nuthatches, and unfortunately starlings too.  If you don't feed suet, these birds will not show themselves, and you won't even know they are around.
Suet provides protein and fat for the birds that can't find insects in winter.  At my feeder, a cake of suet can disappear in two days.  It can disappear overnight if I forget to bring it in and the racoons get it.
I started feeding purchased suet, but as with most ready-made things, I could tell it was much inferior to home made.  The wonderful magazine called Birds and Blooms carried a recipe, and I decided I could do that.

First, melt two pounds of lard (not vegetable shortening - these birds are carvivores) and mix in a big scoop of peanut butter.  

Take the pot off the stove, cool to room temperature, and add handsfulls of peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, and cornmeal.  This mixtue smells as good as oatmeal cookie batter!

I saved plastic trays from purchased suet. Two pounds of lard makes 5 squares of suet.

Set the trays on a cookie sheet, fill with suet, and freeze.  When solid, stack them and wrap in a plastic bag, and keep them in the freezer until needed.  And if you are plagued with racoons, be sure to bring the feeder in at night!