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Making Home made feed blocks


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Alright

 

Been thinking about this and meaning to ask for a couple of weeks now. But seen them mentioned on the other thread about poults tail picking

 

I bought some feed blocks a couple of weeks ago (a wild bird seed mix? plus some spice) where £8.50 a block (from Game and Country) which was bucket sized (the link in other thread had them 9.50 from solway) but the partridges absolutely love them.

 

Can vaguely remember making them as a kid into half coconut shells. How easy would it be to make them on a larger scale?

 

The grey partridge seem to love the 1's i bought, and i already put wild bird seed/maize mixs out for the pheasants but think the feed blocks will be a better way to feed this and keep them occupied but at 8.50 per bucket will soon add up.

 

They seem to have poured it into a bucket mould and some how got it out.

 

Do u need s aspecial type of fat? Would the stuff coming out of a hotel fat collector work? (But ex chippy fat wouldnae?)

Is there an easy way to get the blocks out of a bucket?. Possibly buying metal bucket and heating outside?

 

When i bougt them i asked the owner about cutting them in half as just a trial, he suggested a hot blade, but found a blunt wood saw worked better but a hack saw would be even better with the fine teeth

 

Any ideas advice welcome

 

 

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The partridge have fairly got throu them already and got plenty of places i'd like to put them if i could make them cheap enough. Just a bit pricey at 8.50 for a bucket can buy a whole bag of mixed maize/wild bird seed for that.

 

Never thought of it going mouldy, so it take it smaller 1's might be better.

 

I'll have a look wot i says on the labels for domestic fat balls for birds and se if i can figure something out

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We're mibee talking about similar but slightly differnt things. are u talking about something more like a mineral lick for stock?

 

When i cut them up definately seemed like a fat ball and felt like 1. Will have to have a right good look at the 1's i've got left but definately looks like a fatty type stuff and fairly similar to a fat ball, if anything less fat as u can clearly see the different seeds in the mix

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Molasses?

 

Try chucking a piece in a sauce pan and melting it down, that would give you an idea of the binding agent.

 

We're mibee talking about similar but slightly differnt things. are u talking about something more like a mineral lick for stock?

 

When i cut them up definately seemed like a fat ball and felt like 1. Will have to have a right good look at the 1's i've got left but definately looks like a fatty type stuff and fairly similar to a fat ball, if anything less fat as u can clearly see the different seeds in the mix

 

Much harder than a fat ball

May be a boiled sugar?

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Cheers penelope. Stupid question but, Is molasses not a liquid? Only ever see it in it's liquid form, i've got a gallon in my shed the now and a lot of farmers buy it in IBC's for adding to the mixer wagon

 

Or do u mean the mineral salt licks for stock.

I'll try to have a melt at this 1

 

Paul where the ones ur on about a slolid uniform colour like a mineral lick (heard of ainaseed blocks like that but never managed to find any) like i said these u can see the seeds quite clearly and when i cut it with saw it was crumbling away a bit and melting where my hands where. And the couple i left in the trailer where slowly breaking down a bit just with the weaher

 

The partridge have gone throu 2 in 2 weeks and they have hoppers full of pellets too

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No ingredients on them just came wrapped up in selathane type stuff with no stickers, obviously been formed in a bucket type mould thou with a bit of baler twin in it.

 

I have absoluttely no idea! Not something i've ever thought about before.

 

So u would boil out some molasses then pour the sludgey stuff into ur bucket with the bird seed mix?

 

Thought/hoped someone might have done this before. Sort of just expected to go door knocking at some hotels for fat and using that,

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I would try boiling out just a bit of molasses to see if it crystallises first, if not it's back to the drawing board. I would have thought that fat would go rancid.

 

What about trying to melt down a crystal sugar like brown/Demerara, mixing that with the seed mix and letting it harden off? Not too expensive,

Edited by Penelope
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Isn't it possible to make them, the same way you can make homemade feedingballs(don't know what its called in english) you give to small songbirds?

 

I just read something about using Gelatin as a main substance. I have no idea, whether or not it is to expensive.

Just putting it out there :Dvetbol.jpeg

Edited by BelgianHunter
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Aye thats wot i thought too BH, seems to be slightly more complicated than i thought. Always the way :whistling:

Think u can use household fat, or suet or lard for them, made them as kids a looong time ago

 

Aye they loook the exact same kind as wot i'm using Leadbreakfast. Wot do u think there made with or binding agent? (Wot u paying for that out of interest?)

 

Cheers amatex, not entirely sure how i'd feel about mixing it with cement thou. Seems a bit strange till i get my head round it. How much cement does he put in per batch??

Cement is fairly strong acid know wot its like on ur hands if ur working with it a lot

 

Cheers penelope/paul, The molasses/sugar idea seems as if it might be better just not sure how it would all work. Not much of a fancy chef so not used to cooking sugar, will have a play with the molasses outside up on the shoot cooker incase i stink my house out.

Might even try to cook a mineral block and see if i can melt it down to use as a binding agent.

 

Definately going to have to think about this abit more

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When I'm making blocks for garden birds, I use a 50/50 mix of melted lard and dripping as a binder. I set it in a plastic plant pot, that has a disk of thin ply at the bottom. The ply has a piece of twisted wire stuck through it, that runs up through the centre of the pot: this is the hanger. When the mix is set, I briefly dip the plant pot in hot water to soften, and then I can pull out the plant pot shaped block.

 

Dripping sets harder than lard, which is to soft on its own. Pure dripping would be ok I guess. I think the commercially made balls use suet which would probably be good.

 

As for the blocks melting; I don't normally find that an issue, but I think suet is the most resilient, then dripping.

 

With regard to mould; I find that all fat is quite resistant.

 

I suppose you'd need to find a cheap, wholesale supplier of your chosen fat, in order to make blocks economically. The Cement idea sounds intriguing; much cheaper than fat, but no feed value itself, apart from calcium

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Ceers pond digger and Heston.

 

Meant to look into getting some builders lime, atleast it is more natural than cement. Is field/farmers lime u spread in the spring the same stuff?

 

Where would u get large quanties of either dripping or suet?

 

Going to have a google and try to find out.

 

Cheers for everyone for all the advice/ideas

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