Suet is fuel, and the reason to put it out is arithmetic rather than sentiment. A small bird in January spends most of its daylight hours finding enough calories to survive the night; at 490 kcal per 100g this is one of the densest things you can offer, and it makes a real difference at exactly two points in the year — deep winter, and the breeding season when adults are running themselves into the ground feeding chicks.

Honeyfields make these as pellets rather than balls or blocks, so they go straight into a feeder, onto a table or into a ground tray with no net or cage to deal with. The composition is cereals, oils and fats including ruminant tallow, various sugars, seeds, ground peanuts and insects at 0.5%, of which half is dried mealworms. Crude protein is 6.5%. The pellets are small and easy to peck, which Honeyfields note suits younger birds.

• 550g or 12.55kg sack
• Suet pellets at 490 kcal per 100g
• Insects 0.5%, of which 50% dried mealworms
• Cereals, oils and fats including ruminant tallow
• Crude protein 6.5%
• Small and easy to peck, including for younger birds

Mealworms are on the front and a fraction of a percent of the bag. Insects are 0.5% of the composition and half of that is mealworm — so this is a mealworm-flavoured energy food rather than a mealworm food, and the protein reads 6.5%, which is low by design. Feed it for calories, and put out something genuinely high in protein alongside it in the breeding season rather than relying on this. It also contains ground peanuts, so keep it away from anyone with a nut allergy, and clear uneaten food off a table daily in warm weather.

Who it's for: anyone feeding garden birds properly through winter and the nesting season, with a feeder, a table or a ground tray.