bird cake/fat balls

[teresa]

Feeding birds in winter does not have to be expencive and if you make your own gives you a feel good factor.
Take old lard/shop bought, put in a pan of water bring to the boil simmer for 5-10 mins and allow to cool.
Before its hard skim off the lard, on the top, all the salts and rubish are at the bottom of the pan.
In a bowl put lard with cake, biscutes,dried fruit,bread any left over bits you can save these up in a tin for a week or two before hand.
Mix all bits and put into a lined cake tin and pop into the fridge to set overnight. In the morning cake is ready to serve to to waiting birds.
If you have small clay pots, find a stick to go inside and tye a piece of string to it to hang up.
These can be filled with the cake mix and chilled as the cake.
in trees or on the washing line even the brackets you had your hanging baskets on in summer.
I forgot you can add bird seed as well
Teresa

[rosebud]

HI TERESA,thanks for the info on the lard i do buy this and make bird cakes ,but never knew i had to put in a pan and seperate which i shall do from now on . .
i also use yogart pots or the rice pots all very usefull  
i also pour the lard over the peanut holders when it is very cold and just keep on turning them round untill it starts setting about 2 mins then i put it in a plastic bag in the fridge for a couple of hours,   every little helps them .anymore good tips you have i shall be pleased to try them. cheers rosebud  

[Mrs Ava]

Hi ladies  , As a rule, I don't feed the birds all that much  , I know I know, I should, but I have always felt that if I fed them then they wouldn't come into the garden and eat all the beasties and bugs - and I must say, there is always an abundance of birds in the garden, and if I do bung left overs on the lawn, all I encourage are crows and pigeons!  However, would feeding the birds on the lottie encourage them to come and polish off all the freshly sown seeds, or do you think they would be satisfied and leave well alone?  Just wondered if you had any experience of this, or anyone else come to that.

[teresa]

Hi EJ
Sown seed on a lottie the featherd friends will know you have been working the ground and come to see even dig up to find easy worms. Then of course they find the seed.
So the best thing is to cover fresh sown seed with chicken wire made into a closh? netting can be used even fleese untill things start to grow.
If you feed the smaller birds down the lottie with seedholders you will encourage them to look for greenfly etc when your plants need help and what surprises me is they pefer the grubs to seed.
They will only feed young on grubs and use seed to keep themselves going.
Winter can be tough on birds so we need to feed them to make sure they come back in the spring when we need them.
As for the lard it contains antioxidants and E321 so I simmer it in water to get out all I can before giving to birds just in case.
Then dont forget the water clean water daily if you can afford a bird bath thats good otherwise a shallow container with water.
They need to drink clean water daily and bath to keep the feathers clean to keep them warm at night.
If you have a birds nest box up in the garden leave it up over winter birds can roost in it at night.
Teresa