Homemade Bird Suet.....

Over Christmas vacation, my husband made his own bird suet. He has been saving fat from meat cuts we buy plus he bought 2 packs of fat at the local grocery store for 95 cents each. He set up his work station outside on the grill so the smell of the melting fat would not fill the house.

Once the fat is melted he added some very cheap bird seed he bought in bulk and dried berries from our yard seen here.

He then poured the hot fat mixture into tray we saved for $1.00 frozen meal. By setting it on the snow, the trays did not melt when the hot suet mix was poured into them. He left them there to harden for a little while.

This is what the finished suet looked like. the large pieces were cut in half to fit into out suet holders. We had 7 blocks of suet when he was finished. Next time he would buy more fat at the grocery store to make a larger batch. A larger batch would also bring down the costs.

Cost of Home Made Suet

purchased fat - $1.90

saved fat from meat cuts - free

bird seed - $.50

dried berries - free

Total = 2.40

That brings it to just over 32 cents per suet bar.

The cheapest I ever see them in the store is about 69 cents at the scratch and dent store. These were more than half the price. This will last us through the rest of the winter.