Making Fat Balls / Cakes for your Garden Birds
Giving your birds a healthy nutritious food
It's quite easy to go to the Shops and buy various forms of Fat Balls or Lard Cakes, but the way Birds (and Squirrels if you have any around) get through them, making them yourselves is not only cheaper but enjoyable as well, especially if you have Kids.
Ingredients and Methods
The picture above shows the basic mix; Bird Seed and Porridge Oats (the cheap Oats are great). You can add dried fruit, crushed peanuts and mealworms if you wish. I'm making a mix to put into an old purchased half a coconut shell and for the Fat Ball I'm using an empty Microwave Pudding Container.
The Container has a hole in it with some thin wire going through it and tied to a match stick. I'm using Lard, but Suet is just as good.
Try to calculate one part of Lard to two parts of Feed Mix. Melt the Lard in a Saucepan and simply pour the Lard into it.
Take off the Hob and thoroughly mix together.
Leave for a few minutes so the Lard isn't too runny, then scoop into the Coconut Shell and Plastic Container.
When pouring into the Fat Ball Container, make sure the wire with matchstick is in a position that when hung, it will be about half way down the inside.
After this, simply leave it in a Fridge overnight and by morning they will be pretty solid.
The Coconut is ready to tie to a tree. For the Fat Ball, gently maneuver if from the Container and all's done!
