Rendering Beef Fat....

[Armageddon]

So I was rendering some beef fat to make suet and I got to thinking...Could I mix up some of the chick crumbles and makes a "suet" for my two week old chicks?

Any thoughts?

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
We feed the crumbles to our chickens all the time. Although with bitties, you will want to make sure its a pretty small amount at first.
And we eat the lard/tallow

 

[Armageddon]

Do you ever mix the crumbles with fat for a treat?

 

[Imp]

I make suet cakes for the wild birds (and squirrels lol) My hens love it. They hang around for crumbs and when the squirrels are tearing it up they hang out underneath for the dropped stuff. I would think small amounts only for little chicks.

Imp

 

[fiberart57]

Do you use salt in your rendering process? Were you thinking of using the scraps left after the rendering or the tallow from the suet? If you 're thinking of the scraps some of them may be salty from the rendering process. I'm not sure if that much salt would be hard on the little chicks.

If you're using the tallow, then there shouldn't be too much salt because I think the rendering process keeps the salt in the drippings, but tallow in itself doesn't have a lot of nutritional value unless mixed with grains, seeds, and stuff.

On the advice of someone who should know, I took rendering drippings, mixed them with peanut butter and made my own suet cakes for wild birds. They were a dismal failure. What do you mix in them, Imp, to get the birds to like them. I'm guessing that my chickens would love it because basically they love almost everything (not collard greens) but I'm not sure how good it is for them. I think there's something called fatty liver disease that affects chickens fed a diet high in fat.

Perhaps others have had different experiences.

Mary

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Just mostly whatever I have around. I start off with the fat and peanut butter also, but any and all of the following:

Oats
cornmeal
flour
sugar
chopped fruit
berries
nuts
birdseed
layer pellets
scratch
cereal

I keep my eyes open for clearance items when I'm shopping for groceries. Also anything out of my yard that I'm not gonna eat. Like last year I picked currants washed and froze. The more I thought of how many worms were in them the more I couldn't eat, so the birds got them. I also make it kinda runny so it's not too crumbly when hardened. I think it also depends on the birds in your yard. I mostly see black capped chickadees and bush tits as residents. lots of others coming through.

Imp

 

[Armageddon]

Ok well, I guess I shouldn't say rendering....

I save/freeze left over fat trims. When i get enough I just cook them down.

Birds love it mixed with seeds and greens. I wondered if it would be a good treat for the chicks. They love little meal worms but I am out of them....they aren't hatching (and growning) fast enought for the little boogers.