Suet Bird Block Recipe

At the March 2019 Chapter Meeting, Cindy Travis shared her recipe for home-made suet blocks for bird feeders. These attract warblers, woodpeckers, chickadees, wrens, and more. She’s agreed to share it with readers of our blog!

This red-bellied woodpecker likes the inexpensive feeder from Lowe’s. Photo from Lowe’s

Cindy says you can easily double or triple the recipe, so you’ll have plenty. The blocks freeze well.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup lard
  • 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • 1 cup raisins, seeds, or crumbled eggshells (optional)
  • (Cindy recommends currants as fruit, because they are small)

Instructions

Dump all ingredients in a pot and heat over medium heat until the lard and peanut butter melt. Stir thoroughly.

Pour into a square pan, bread pan (you can slice the blocks), or into a Ziploc-type plastic storage container the size of your bird feeder.

Cool until solid, then hang in your block feeder.

This flicker likes the feeder with tail rest from Amazon. Photo from Amazon.

PS: You can easily find suet feeders in home improvement stores (Lowe’s Home Depot) or big box stores with garden departments (Target, Wal-Mart, etc.). Specialty wild bird feeding stores will have a larger selection, and of course you can find them online (here is a sampling from Wild Birds Unlimited). You can attach them to trees, hang them on poles, etc.