Comments on: Home-Made Treats for Backyard Birds

By: Daily Links: Daily Bread Edition ? Get Rich Slowly

Daily Links: Daily Bread Edition ? Get Rich Slowly — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:00:34 +0000

[...] site is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!As an aside in a recent guest post, my wife mentioned that I had purchased eight loaves of bread for an article I never wrote. Well, [...]

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:30:39 +0000

My parents once made their own suet cakes by rendering store bought suet (the natural, stringy kind), adding birdseed and then chilling to harden. It made a neat treat for the birds, and they were able to mold it to a perfect fit for their suet feeder, but the house smelled for days. I recommend that if you want to boil your fat, you should do it on a nice warm day outdoors.

By: Kristina

Kristina — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:03:13 +0000

You are wonderful! Thanks for taking such good care of the animals. The good karma alone is worth the $ you are spending

By: BigRed

BigRed — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:03:19 +0000

We have a German shepherd and two daughters with long hair, so when we brush out hair during nesting season, I always leave it for the birds. I’ve seen nests in the fall, after the leaves are gone, that included really long blonde hair and were lined with fluffy German shepherd undercoat (like polyester fill). Those baby birds must have been cozy when they lived there.

I’ve also seen (through the binoculars) big (really big) squirrel nests that contain other items–nylons, parts of stuffed animals etc.

By: Redbeard

Redbeard — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:03:43 +0000

When I looked around I found a local bird store that provided a free seed storage service. Now once a year (when they have a sale) I go in buy a years worth at a time.

For another cheap bird project try finding a bird house plan online, there are plenty out there. I used up some scrap wood and will hopefully attract more regulars to my yard.

By: NCN

NCN — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:27:14 +0000

Kim,
That makes sense. Thanks!
NCN

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:17:55 +0000

NCN,

The rationale behind not feeding at certain times of the year is NOT sound. “They” (whoever they are) sometimes say that feeding birds during the winter months interferes with food-hunting instincts and will eventually be harmful in the end. WRONG!!!

Birds need reliable sources of food year round -in the cold months because food is scarcer and in the warm months when they are nesting and breeding. Hope this helps!

By: Baker

Baker — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:19:26 +0000

My moms boyfriend has a few bird feeders. No matter what he does the squirrels get into them. Then end result is my mom has the fattest squirrels I have ever seen running around her yard.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:37:02 +0000

This is another good peanut butter suet recipe. I made a big batch a couple weeks ago and the kinglets, wrens, and a variety of woodpeckers love the stuff.

I’ve seen metal thistle feeders at places like Wild Birds Unlimited for about $20. I have one hanging at my window that seems to always have a couple goldfinches hanging onto it.

By: ladykemma2

ladykemma2 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:21:00 +0000

you can grow those oily sunflowers for free. just let the seeds fall to the ground .

By: My Shoestring's2Short

My Shoestring's2Short — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:30:50 +0000

Feeding the birds is like watching a free movie - the birds get the popcorn - so to speak! I have never regretted the money I spent on either seeds or feeders.
http://www.birdwatchersgeneralstore.com/articles.htm is a very entertaining source of bird stories and how-tos about feeding them. There is not much funnier than a bluejay as his crest is growing in! Thanks for the recipe. I think I will make some!

By: Pink Bendy Straw

Pink Bendy Straw — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:55:51 +0000

I am with Four Pillars on this one, I am really curious about this.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:31:47 +0000

a bit off topic but…

eight loaves of bread? What was the post going to be about?

By: NCN

NCN — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:22:55 +0000

Do you feed them year round?
I’ve heard that it’s best not to feed them at certain times - but I have forgotten when that time is! Also, we leave bits of string and old strips of cloth on top of the clothesline posts - for birds to use when building their nests.
NCN

By: RacerX

RacerX — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:34:23 +0000

I had no idea birds would eat that much! Obviously not a birder, but that is a lot of food…or is it just one big yellow bird

By: Kris

Kris — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:48:15 +0000

@#1 Funny About Money: I have seen those expensive thistle feeders, but another option works for me: I have one of the “sock” feeders. It’s basically a fabric sleeve with a drawstring neck. I fill it with thistle seeds and suspend it from a branch. The finches love it. It costs about $6 and will eventually rot (~2 years) but I bet you could rig up something ingenious with an actual threadbare or loosely woven sock or stocking.

By: Schizohedron

Schizohedron — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 15:41:15 +0000

Thanks for the guest post, Kris! That is a wonderful squirrel picture. It led me to J.D.’s Flickr stream, which happens to have a slew of charming magazine ads from decades ago.

I am quite curious about the scrapped blog post that required eight loaves of bread!

Many people save cooking grease (e.g., from bacon) in a can in their freezer until it’s full, then throw it away. There may be a chance that one or more of your neighbors have been doing this; you might be able to trade for or simply take these cans once they’re full. Then use them for the next fat cakes!

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:51:09 +0000

Zowie! Talk about great minds in the same path: I was just about to blog on the same subject. So, cutting to the hard part…has anyone figured how to make a thistle feeder (as opposed to a block)?

Thistle feeders attract flocks of goldfinches — when my friend puts hers out, her tree in front looks like it’s covered with golden flowers. I spotted a thistle feeder at a local nursery: gasp! FIFTY-TWO BUCKS!

It’s just a cylinder of a fairly wide metal mesh, capped on the top & bottom with metal “cap” things connected with a metal rod. The mesh is not as fine as the old-fashioned metal screen-door cloth stuff–it may be a little finer than the wire cage in the photo, but it looks sort of like that. Anybody know what that stuff is called and how to get it?

I suspect you could use food jar lids to make the bottom & top. You could probably use a dowel or a length of metal clothes-hanger wire to make the rod to hold it together. Or maybe a ridiculously long machine bolt?

Millet, which is the bulk of most birdseed, is extremely easy to grow, BTW. It will grow in pure sand. When I was a little girl, my mother used to blow the chaff off our budgie’s birdseed in the direction of our sandbox. A bunch of uneaten seed got blown into the sand, and as soon as it rained, we had a crop of the stuff.

Birds love fresh ripe millet — all you have to do is clip it and stick in the cage — or presumably, leave it where wild birds can get at it.