Bird Recipies ????

[Alex2x]

Hi I have a fairly big garden, and have lots of wildlife in my garden, I am sick of forking out money to shops that charge a small fortune, for nuts.
I was wondering if it is possible to make somthing for the blue tits to eat, does anyone have any good recipies for me to try plz thankyou.

[alan_rymer]

Sigh of relief. From the header I thought you were to be involved with a "cull" of some description!.

There was a post recently about making fat bells?. I will look, there was a postig either today or yesterday on that thread!.

[alan_rymer]

Hmm

the thread is ird Bells. And the recipe is in WWW.GARDENBUDDIES.COM but I couldn't find it. However, Zil did find it. Suggest you send a Privatemail Zil .

[winkle]

Just simple oatmeal and suet balls and cakes.

[Booga]

I do a mix of mashed potoato and suet with some cooked pastry and damp bread. I mix in various seeds, bits of apple and raisins and cooked bacon rind or bits of sausage. I'll also do variations on the above, leaveing out meat from one tub and fruit from another. Then I either place a the tub on the birdtable or hang it from a tree with a bit of wire.

Starlings, robins and tits love it mostly but I've had all sorts of other birds feeding on them, including briefly a Great-Spotted woodpecker.

[Doug]

We buy cheap lard and mix in oats, sultana's, seeds etc and chill it in the fridge then make fat balls using an ice cream scoop - then we hang with wire or put into a mesh peanut feeder - Egon Ronay style food for birds - they love it. We also buy seed mixes in bulk from C.J. Wild Birdfood site - excellent quality, delivered and reasonably priced. The number of species we attract jumped dramatically when we started using it.

[Alex2x]

Thanks very much for all your help. cheers

[Zil]

Hello, Alex2x and alan_rymer:

The recipe I found was not for "fat bells" but for seed bells.

Line small terracotta pots (with drainage hole) with an oven roasting bag. Beat 2 egg whites until white but not stiff (reserving 2 tablespoons) and mix well with 8 oz. (1 cup) of mixed seed. Pack into pot. Bake in very low oven for ~30 minutes. Insert craft wire through pot and out hole in bottom, leaving small length at top and longer length on bottom. Continue baking on low heat for another 30-40 minutes until almost set. At this point, top with the 2 tablespoons of reserved egg white and bake 'till set. Cool and carefully remove from pot. Twist short wire, so bell cannot slip off, and longer wire into a loop to hang by. This recipe was posted by Carolyn at gardenbuddies.com. (and thanks to Beverlybanes, who pointed me in the right direction!)

You could probably omit the wire and inclose the resulting clump in wide-gage plastic mesh or screening.

I haven't tried it yet, but intend to this weekend. I still want to know what I do with all those leftover yolks! :-)

Zil

[alan_rymer]

Zil

Thanks for the info!.
I stand corrected!
Regarding the yolks, sorry. No idea!. But my dog would love them.
I am sure if you put them out uncooked in a saucer one night they would be gone by next morning though!.