Fat Balls & Peanuts.......

I make my own fat balls - and, yes I have heard all the jokes.  It's much cheaper (I virtuously resisted a very easy pun here) than the shops and you can vary the ingredients to suit what you have.  I do feed the birds all year round and we have Nuthatches, all the Tit family, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Sparrows, Dunnocks, Blackbirds, Robins and Thrushes, as well as the occasional cheeky Jackdaw.  I also put out peanuts and after fairly extensive research have had the "baby birds choke on peanuts" myth quashed (RSPB) and anyway if you pop the nuts in a mesh container the adult bird can't even get a whole one out.  

Anyhoo, as winter is nearly howlin in (certainly in North Northumberland) I thought I'd post my recipe here.

Snappers Balls
Ingredients
1kg mixed bird seed (much cheaper to buy in a sack)
500g suet (I usually use vegetable but will check consistency of animal)

Method

1. Put seed in a BIG mixing bowl.
   
2. Add 500g suet.
   
3. Mix well.
   
4. Put in Microwave until fat has melted. (I use a HUGE mason Cash bowl so if you have a thinner one your melt point will be reached before mine..)
   
5. Mix again.
   
6. The seed should be quite warm now so put in the other 500g of suet and mix around.  If you leave it for a couple of mins it will start to melt slightly and get a bit gooey/gluey so you can then form balls without them falling apart but I sometimes add a bit of flour if mix wont stay together.
   
7. Form balls in palm of hand (I wear latex gloves cos I hate the seed or indeed anything under my nails) and put in fridge to firm
   
8. Feed birds and feel good..
   

You can use lard in the winter and you don't have to melt that but my feeding station is in the sunshine so it's still a bit warm for that. Maybe next week!