Lard, how do I prepare it?

[Sylviaanne]

Oh, I definitely have my toes. They were safely enclosed in two pairs of socks and my coop boots!

I used to pick those cakes up almost anywhere.....grocery stores, Walmart back where they keep the bird feeding supplies...dollar stores. They're pretty easy to find. I can also give you my recipe if you want to just pick up a stack of disposable plastic storage ware thingies (like those ziploc containers with lids - they usually come several in a package) and use them. Cheap and cheerful!

Sure, I'd love to have the recipe and I keep all kinds of containers when we buy stuff. LOL I don't keep the ones that you can get at the deli in Walmart with potatoes and gravy in them, too flimsy but if we buy the potato salad, macaroni salad or coleslaw already in containers, I keep those, so I have lots of different sizes.

 

[Blooie]

Great - it's really easy.

1 cup lard
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour, Creme of Wheat, or oatmeal. (I use oatmeal)
2 cups cornmeal - white or yellow doesn't matter.
raisins, dried cherries, or any other chopped up dried fruit.
handful of hulled, unsalted sunflower seeds.

Melt lard and peanut butter, add dry ingredients and fruit, freeze open container side up when slightly set. After they are frozen, then you can pop them out of the plastic container (run a little warm water over them if they stick) and bag and freeze. That's it! Obviously easy to increase the amount you make but I usually get 5 or 6 suet cakes out of one batch.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Great - it's really easy.

1 cup lard
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour, Creme of Wheat, or oatmeal. (I use oatmeal)
2 cups cornmeal - white or yellow doesn't matter.
raisins, dried cherries, or any other chopped up dried fruit.
handful of hulled, unsalted sunflower seeds.

Melt lard and peanut butter, add dry ingredients and fruit, freeze open container side up when slightly set. After they are frozen, then you can pop them out of the plastic container (run a little warm water over them if they stick) and bag and freeze. That's it! Obviously easy to increase the amount you make but I usually get 5 or 6 suet cakes out of one batch.

Thank you. I have peanut butter, C of W, oatmeal and cornmeal. We need to go to the grocery store and I can pick up the other things while we are there. Hubby doesn't need to know it's for the chickens. LOL

 

[Blooie]

Oh, I'm so glad you'll be able to use it! Good way to use up those little bits in the bottom of the dried fruit bag that are wayyyy beyond too dry to eat! I won't say a word to him, I promise!

 

[Temp]

Mine went out and free ranged for a couple of hours today in the snow on frozen ground. Don't guess they would have got much if the grandkids had not been here today to give them a few handouts. Maybe next time you buy feed maybe go for a little higher protein. A friend of mine swears by black oil sunflower seeds to give them a boost on a cold night, they sure do like them

 

[Cindy in PA]

Dual purpose breeds eat more like a 1/3 of a pound. The .25 is an average for birds like leghorns & Sex Links. They can eat even more in winter. With 110 birds I can see them easily eating over 30 pounds a day.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Dual purpose breeds eat more like a 1/3 of a pound. The .25 is an average for birds like leghorns & Sex Links. They can eat even more in winter. With 110 birds I can see them easily eating over 30 pounds a day.

I have a Welsummer and Crested Polish roosters, I had 4 CX, 3 EE, 1 BO, 1SF and 1 what looked like an Australorp hens at the beginning of the year. I have lots of cross breed babies now, some of whom are adults. I also now have a Cochin rooster, a Silkie rooster and 6 other Silkies that I don't know if they are boys or girls, and various other babies along with 11 ducks, 11 geese and about 19 guineas.

Are the Welsummer/Crested Polish/CX/EE/BO/SF and Australorps dual purpose birds? Would their babies be dual purpose when they are mixed breeds?

 

[Sylviaanne]

Mine went out and free ranged for a couple of hours today in the snow on frozen ground. Don't guess they would have got much if the grandkids had not been here today to give them a few handouts. Maybe next time you buy feed maybe go for a little higher protein. A friend of mine swears by black oil sunflower seeds to give them a boost on a cold night, they sure do like them

We still have lots of grass and weeds and that type of thing standing in the yard but I don't see our chickens, guineas or ducks eating them. I haven't seen the geese eating them either but when I open the run to let everyone out, the geese are the first to go. They do go back later to eat the food I put out but I sure hope they are cutting down some of the grass and weeds also.

Next month we will have a bit more for food for them because someone told us where we can get 55# bags of pellets cheaper than what we are paying for 50# bags of crumbles. The crumbles was the least expensive we could find. We are very grateful for running into this man who told us about this new place. I would rather have the pellets than the crumbles.

I don't know if this new place carries black oil sunflower seeds but I saw some for $20 for a, I think it was a 20# bag. How do you give it to them? Just put some out like their food/oyster shell?

I'm not sure mine will like them. Oddly enough, when someone says their birds l like something, I try to give it to mine and they turn their noses up at it. I was really surprised when I broke open a pumpkin and they pecked at it a little bit and then left it but a couple of days later, there was absolutely NOTHING left of the pumpkin. I asked my husband to pick up 2 more yesterday and he said Walmart didn't have ANY. I guess I will have to search around for some more.

 

[Temp]

Don't seem to matter much where you put sunflower seeds they will find em, spread them around like you would scratch feed the will go bonkers for them.

 

[Chris09]

You get stories from both sides and I have given it to my dogs and chickens and they do seem to do better when I do. At least for a short time. I do not give it to them every day or every month. Just when I see that they look a little off.

I am wondering if the study showing that chronic oral intake can lead to damage, why isn't that information better known? You would think something like that would scare people enough to talk about it, a lot.

I think that like many things that work on humans, some it works for, some it doesn't, some can be of a body type that can be harmed by using a product, you just have to give it a try and see if it works for you.

The thing to look at is that there are more and more studies the show that DE is useless for internal use. It also seems that the only sites that clam DE will work as a wormer, etc. also sell it, so it makes sense that they push it as a cure all.

Also keep in mind that chicken have a gizzard, that gizzard can make dust out of stones so, what do you think it can do to DE?