Homemade Grease Feeders

For our feathered friends who need all the nourishment they can get in the winter.

PLEASE!!!! . . .
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN WORKING WITH WIRE.
Be AWARE of where both ends are while you are working with this.
If you are doing this as a project with children, have them wear safety goggles.

*NOTE*These feeders are for areas that stay cold in the winter. They won't work well in warmer climates where the grease can melt. Be sure to remove them when the weather warms . . . you don't want the grease dripping all over and making a mess or attracting varmints. (Adding flour to the mixture helps against melting.)

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Bright Idea

While cleaning up after a mess of holiday cooking, I found myself left with a can of grease drippings and a large cover from a gallon jar. I thought to myself, Mom never throws grease drippings away, she fixes it up for the birds. And the recyclers don't want the jar cover . . . just the glass jar.
THE IDEA: RECYCLE the jar cover into an "easy to fill" feeder to hold some homemade suet recipe. My recipe is nothing special, just a few things I had handy. There are sites that have some really good suet recipes on them.

Here's what I did: I warmed the grease, strained it and set it aside. While it was cooling, I chopped some unsalted, roasted peanuts (about 10) which were bought for the squirrels, into little pieces. I took the can of grease and spooned out most of it into a bowl and mixed this with 5 or 6 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter. Added a couple heaping tablespoons each of cornmeal and oatmeal plus the chopped peanuts. (I had creamy peanut butter, if you use the chunky, you won't have to bother with chopping peanuts.) While you prepare the holder, place the mixture in the freezer so it will firm up some.

Punch a couple holes through the cap with an awl or a small nail. Next, CAREFULLY put the wire through one hole, wrap it around the dowel rod or stick several times, and back up through the other hole. Twist it around itself, leaving about a foot to hang it with.

jarcove feeder

I took the mix out of the freezer just as it was starting to firm up. (Don't let it get too hard, but leave it long enough to be firm and workable.) Taking a spatula, fill the cap and heaped the mix up toward the wire in the center.

I hung this off of a nail on our deck railing and not 10 minutes later, there was a chickadee, sitting on top of the mixture munching away. I still can't believe how much the birds like it. Your probably wondering why in the pics above, you don't see the dowel rod or stick. The dowel rod may not be needed but may add some support to keep the cover hanging flat.

If you don't have a large jar cover, here is how my Mother makes hers.

Use a can, not like the new soup cans that have the molded bottoms but the kind where you can easily open both ends (but not yet). Use the can to pour off your grease drippings while you are cooking. Each time you add some grease, add a tablespoon of peanut butter stir it up. When it is starting to firm up a bit, add some cornmeal, oatmeal, and seeds or peanuts. (Black oil sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, or chopped peanuts) When it is full, set it in the freezer and let it harden. Cut the bottom end off the can and with a bit of wire, a dowel rod or stick, fix the can so you can hang it from a tree or your deck.

jarcover feeder

You can also just wait until the can is about 2/3rds full. Warm the grease enough so the peanut butter will melt into it. Mix all the ingredients into the grease and refill the can. As it is cooling, stir it occasionally so the seeds don't all settle to the bottom. Put the can in the freezer until the mixture has hardened. When the mix is hard, cut the end off of the bottom and run a piece of wire thru one side. Take a stick, and shove it through the other side. Hang it up and the birds will love it.

Milkjug Feeders "Recycle a gallon milk jug"

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