My friend loves to watch birds, and frequently buys and hauls seed or suet to her feeder. I also love to watch birds, but usually do so in their natural environment rather than working to maintain a feeder. Recently, I came upon a great alternative to hauling seed and suet to attract birds to watch. While preparing a broth of moose bones, I could not fit all of them into the pot. I decided to try putting one of the bones out for the birds and they seemed quite pleased with it! I especially love watching a woodpecker that often comes and starts pecking away at a fresh bone I just put out; the sound quickly alerts all the neighborhood birds who soon join him to enjoy the treat too!
Moose Bone Bird Feeder
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About the Author: Krista Holbrook
Krista is a member of the Professional Bowhunters Society, Compton Traditional Bowhunters, and Golden North Archery in Fairbanks, Alaska. She believes strongly in supporting archery hunting organizations, particularly those that support strong youth programs.
The birds will surely love moose bones, b-u-t, if you live around any bears, they’ll surely love it too! My bird seed feeder was flattened and the new suit block, along with the wire cage that contained it were not to be found.
Hi Ms. Krista,
Great observation about the good protien food source for birds. I would be interested in your process to make bone broth. Do you open up the bone do all the marrow is exposed?
My hunting partner has hung the rib cages of his boned out deer in the trees around his place for years. The birds will pick them clean before spring. They actually seem to prefer it. They will not touch a manufactured suit block until there is nothing left on the deer carcass.
Thanks for sharing the bird feeding tip, Krista. We also supplement bones and seed with pieces of skin and fat that the birds seem to relish especially in the coldest moths of the year. Feeding birds is enjoyable, but only if the local environment is clear of domestic cats. Studies report more than 3 BILLION birds in the U.S. alone are killed annually by roaming cats! As if wind turbines, windows, cars and wholesale habitat destruction wasn’t harmful enough on birds…
I freeze all my venison suet and put it out in suet cages. The woodpeckers love it!
I do something similar for my chickens, however I put the bones on my chopping block I use to make kindling or for splitting wood and smash the bones with a maul until they are small enough particles a bird including chickens can ingest them safely. My free range hens will immediately come up and start pecking and swallowing the bone chips with marrow, cooked sinew and meat and fat.
Much of the current commercial chicken feed is nearly devoid of animal protein/fat sources. Similarly with commercial wild bird feed. The proof is in the pudding. inasmuch as the hens lay larger eggs afterwards with stronger shells and the inner membrane is also tougher as well. Some of the more aggressive hens are so eager to have first dibs I have to be careful not to smash their heads with the maul.
Doling the smashed bones out in accord to what the chickens or wild birds will clean up quickly should prevent most problems with invasive predators. If a bear, raccoon or coyote does cause problems then my bow and arrows or shotgun with buckshot or slugs takes care of the problem, then I cook up the predator and if i don’t eat the meat myself I portion it out to my hens, dogs, cats, wild birds etc. as an excellent source of nutrition. The wild birds especially appreciate this in winter when their normal insect prey is hard to obtain. It also makes my small electric pressure cooker more useful. In fact the pressure cooker softens the bones enough it is easier to smash them than just simmering them at a lower temperature. for normal bone broth.