Make your own bird feeders

I didn't think until we were done that I should've taken pictures throughout the process - so no pictures, but I wanted to share what we did.

We are doing Apologia's Zoology 1 book - the study of flying creatures.  The first half of the book is the study of birds.  We made 2 bird feeders today to attract different birds to our yard to study.  The first feeder we made was for regular bird seed with a jug.  We used bamboo skewers for perches and wire to hang it by the tree.

The second one was making suet for a suet basket.  The book said sunflower seeds will attract songbirds and birds that usually eat insects prefer suet.  It says woodpeckers will flock to this "Smart Suet".  Okay, so here's what you need:

small ziploc bags (we used the sandwich size.  The quart size looked too large for our suet basket.  If you have a large suet basket, I think the quart would work well.)
a suet basket or mesh bag
stove
pot
stirring spoon
freezer
2 cups crunchy peanut butter
2 cups lard (not shortening)
4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
4 cups cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1 cup bird seed (you can also add whole wheat kernels or other unprocessed grains.)

1.  Melt the lard and peanut butter ina pot over low heat.  (We used a 2 quart saucepan and it was very hard to stir everything in at the end.  I suggest using a large saucepan.)

2.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

3.  Scoop the mixture into the small plastic ziploc bags.  (We were able to get 5 sandwich sized suet bags)

4.  Place the bags in the freezer so that the suet will harden.

After the suet is hardened:

5.  Remove the suet from one of the bags and place it in the suet basket.

6.  Hang it on a tree.

7.  Wait, watch and enjoy.

I will try to take pictures of the birds that visit these feeders to post, but birds are hard to get good pictures of.