Homemade Suet Cakes for Chickens
Ready to give your chickens a tasty little treat that will keep them happy, busy, and healthy? These suet cakes are pretty easy to whip together and your girls will have so much fun!
What are suet cakes?
I’m sure you’ve seen little square “cakes” for wild birds, right? The concept is the same, except for chickens! When you place these little suckers in a hanging cage it gives them hours of entertainment plus healthy nutrition. Totally a win win.
How to make suet cakes for chickens
There really is not an official recipe for this—I just melt a bunch of leftover bacon grease and sometimes some coconut oil, then I add all sorts of goodies my chickens love such as black oil sunflower seeds, oatmeal, dried fruit, barley, herbs, and spices. I’ll give you a rough recipe to get you started, but please have fun with this and use what you have! As long as your chickens love it, you’re good to go!
Homemade Suet Cakes
Ingredients
3-4 cups of melted fat (leftover bacon grease, coconut oil, etc.)
Roughly 5-6 cups of dried “goodies” such as:
Black oil sunflower seeds
Mealworms
Barley
Oatmeal
Cracked Corn
Split peas
Dried fruit
Herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, sage, etc.)
Spices (cayenne, garlic, etc.)
Whatever else you can find in your cabinets that is chicken friendly and you wish to get rid of!
Directions
Start by gently melting your fats in a large saucepan. I keep the bacon grease in either the fridge or freezer until I accumulate enough to use.
Once the fats have all melted, I dump in whatever other ingredients I’m adding. Seriously, I never measure. I just eyeball it. The goal is to make sure there is enough fat that once solidified will hold all the other goodies together. Otherwise, trust me, you will have a lovely mess of mealworms and barley all over your counters. 🤣
Line a bread pan with parchment paper, pour the mixture in and allow it to solidify. Generally I place it in the fridge until hard—it makes it much easier to cut later! And, I will suggest NOT to put it in the freezer if you’re using a glass or ceramic bread pan. I have shattered a pan trying to get it out. Sad day.
Once it has hardened, lift the parchment paper and hardened block out and place on a cutting board. Very carefully cut into slices.
I store mine wrapped in parchment paper in the freezer. Then when I’m ready to give one to the chickens I pop it into the little cage and they go to town!
Alternatively you could set a slice in a pan for them to peck at.
When to use suet cakes
I only ever use these in the winter to give them a little extra boost of fat and protein. Chickens need both to keep themselves warm. I would imagine that this would be pretty messy in really hot weather as the fat would probably get all melty.
If you put these in the little hanging cages it also offers them hours of entertainment. When the ground is frozen, pecking at a moving target keeps them occupied and out of shenanigans such as pecking at other chickens.
Why add herbs and spices
I always add in at least cayenne and garlic to my suet cakes. Cayenne helps keep them warm and garlic is a great antibiotic. Chickens don’t feel spicy hot like we do, but the cayenne does help warm up their insides.
If you’d like to watch a little video on how to make these suet cakes check out my instagram page here.
WHERE TO PURCHASE
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