by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock
I live in New Hampshire where our winters can get bitterly cold and while I don’t put a heater in our coop (if there is room to roost, the birds know how to keep themselves warm) on the coldest of cold days, I do leave a plate of cookies out for the girls to enjoy.
I’m not talking about any old cookies though, what I leave out are those suet blocks that are typically intended for outdoor bird feeders. It’s a way to give my birds a needed boost in calories which helps to maintain their body heat and energy levels when the temperatures drop.
While I do decorate a plate of “cookies” to leave with the chickens on Christmas Eve– along with the human variety of cookies and milk for Santa – at all other times, we just set out the blocks that I get from our local feed store. During January and February, I usually set out about 3 blocks every other week for our flock of 30. You don’t want to go overboard with the fat. Just a little here and there will do the trick.
Make your own Chicken Cookies
If you are adventurous, you can make your own chicken cookies by using suet purchased from a butcher. Heat the suet in a pan on low until it is melted, remove any contaminants or large pieces and then add whatever you’d like to the mixture. Some ideas include:
- · Grains
- · Dried fruit
- · Seeds
- · Peanut butter
- · Kitchen scraps
Pour the mixture into molds. If you don’t have molds use a large flat pan and then cut it up later.
Refrigerate until the mixture has cooled and is solid enough to handle. Parcel them out to your flock and watch as the birds gratefully devour every last crumb.
1 Comment
Thanks for sharing this. More power to you!