"Tether Cabbage" works for me. I use an apple corer to make a hole through the core of the cabbage, string some twine through it, and hang the cabbage so they can peck at it. My 9 chickens will demolish a whole head of cabbage in a day. I posted a whole thread with pictures earlier this week.
Here are some suit cake recipes I've gathered off this forum:
BEST RECIPE FOR SUET CAKES FOR BIRDS:
1 cup lard
1 cup crunch peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour, or Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal
2 cups cornmeal
Optional: raisins, BOSS, dried fruit, or eggshells ground fine.
Mix, pour into 9 x 9 pan, or since I double this recipe, I use a 9 x 13 pan.
(recipe from "Birds and Blooms" magazine)
Wintertime Suet
3 c rendered lard, I prefer pork, but beef works too
1 c peanut butter
2 c misc. scratch grains (mine are BOSS, corn, millet, safflower)
1 c dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, whatever
Soften lard until stir-able, but not liquid. Mix with peanut butter, scratch and dried fruit. Pack mixture into a cake tin (or ice cube trays if you have multiple available). Put in freezer (or just on the porch if youre in the Midwest like me...) until solid. Let it thaw SLIGHTLY until it can be removed from the pan and sliced (no need to slice if ice-cube size). Transfer slices to a Tupperware or ziplock baggie and store in the freezer. Thaw a slice on the counter before feeding to the chooks. You could probably feed it frozen, but that seems un-fun to me. Mine eat it quickly, so I dont even bother with a wire suet feeder - I just put it on a plate and let them have it. They get one or two slices a week while its cold outside. BTW, my ding dong laborador thinks this is the bees knees. I guess she thinks that the chooks are getting special treatment and doesnt want to be left out.
Home-made Chicken Muffins
3 cups scratch (mine consists of: 1½ c BOSS, 1 c red and white millet, ¼ cup Cracked Corn and ¼ cup Safflower)
½ cup Winter Wheat Berries
½ cup Ground Flax Seed
1 cup Blanched Peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
½ cup Wheat Germ
½ cup Oatmeal
½ cup Raisins
4 Eggs
3 Tablespoons real Maple Syrup
Lard or Shortening
Preheat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and toss by hand. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs. Stir beaten eggs into the seed mixture and add syrup. Lastly, add raisins and stir mixture gently until all is evenly combined. Generously grease a muffin tin (I used a regular tin and a mini-muffin tin) with lard or shortening. Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin cups to level and tamp down with the back of a spoon until firm. Bake for 1½ hours. Let cool and remove from muffin tins. Store a few on the counter for the coming days and put the rest in the freezer in a tupperware.
Another Recipe:
Bread slices, wild bird seed,Black sun flower seeds, (you can also use scratch, oatmeal, wheat germ, grits, whatever you want to use!..)
In a large mixing bowl..wet the bread slices..add the seed and scratch..(whatever you choose to add)...mix all the ingredients together(with your hands)..the wet bread is the binder..it makes a kind of dough....grease a microwave safe baking pan...add the bread/seed mixture to the pan...press down tightly with a spatula...put in microwave oven for 5 minutes..keep testing hardness with finger(it will take about 20 minutes total...)...when you feel it is hard enough..take out and let cool...it will harden even more...if you greased the pan enough..it will pop right out of the pan in one solid block..they love it!
Oatmeal Omelet Pancake
Boil water. Add enough rolled oats to make a very watery oatmeal. Crack 3 or 4 eggs right into the mixture and work them in. Add pancake mix to the mixture and mix until you end up with an "Oatmeal, Omelet Pancake". Spread it out on a flat plate and let it cool until it's warm to the touch but not too hot.
