Nest but no eggs yet

[Mango]

It’s been a week since lady BB started the nest. The male is not defending the nest as much as he had. The female comes and adds some pine straw every now and then. I have a full nest. We did see them mating yesterday. This is my first bluebird nest and have no idea what is going on. The wrens have noticed and went inside and threw some sticks in. We chased them away and finally the male came back to defend the nest.

Any ideas? I have a nest for the wrens, but took it down because the female bluebird kept checking it, even though it was at least 30 feet away.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

• This topic was modified 10 months ago by Mango.
• This topic was modified 10 months ago by Mango.

[tamsea]

I’m sorry but it isn’t looking good for your bluebirds nesting this time. House wrens are awful. Once they’ve found your house they will not stop going in and off there’s another bird’s eggs they will destroy them.
I’m the future, leave that wren box open. You can attach a Wren hole reducer on it so the bluebirds can’t get in. You might want to do that now just in case it would work. You can buy in then at a bird store near you usually or online.
But usually even if a house wren had their own house they still will destroy eggs.
Giving house wrens their own place works for some people but not many.
If the Wren hasn’t found a bluebird nest yet and there’s eggs in it you can use a Wren guard and hope for the best.
So for right now I would open that wren box up right away and hope for the best.

Tammy

[TimC]

I’m no expert on “Little Stinker” deterrents but I had success so far on one EBB trail by providing two small “decoy” nest boxes near EBB nest boxes. Though the stinkin wren did put a few sticks into an EBB box nearby they completed a decoy box nest and seem to be staying there. Interestingly, the other decoy hasn’t had a single stick deposited. It’s a bit of an experiment to see if providing smaller boxes are preferred. One success does not prove much.

In my home yard it’s a different story. Two decoy boxes are up and though one was filled, and I mean filled, with sticks they moved on and are nesting in one of two closely paired EBB nest box. They seem to be happy with that arrangement. After watching for about a week and realizing not even a little stinker can get inside the decoy I emptied it out hoping for a chickadee will adopt it.

I would say that you should provide that Wren box again. I hope it works.

I’ll confirm the decoy box dimensions if my “experiment” works. It was just some scrap I slapped together after reading about decoy boxes.

Tim C. WI/MI border.

[TimC]

In the BRAW newsletter below there is an article about a small study to deter wrens.

https://www.braw.org/copy-of-bod-wb-newsletter-archive-1

Go to the”Summer 2023″ archived newsletter.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by TimC.

Tim C. WI/MI border.

[Mango]

Thanks. My gut told me to put up the decoy box again. The prior wren nest was overfilled with sticks coming out of the hole.
But, will the bluebird lay eggs? That was my main question. We are designing a wren guard, but if I don’t get eggs, it’s fruitless. I read it could take a week before she started laying eggs, but it’s already been a week and I have a pretty nice nest in there. I leave her pine straw and she uses it daily. I am wondering if this is their decoy nest.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by Mango.

[tamsea]

What’s happened with that nest, Mango? Usually bluebirds will not lay in a nest that a house wren or house sparrow has started to take over. They will give up. If they have eggs they are more committed. So I’m guessing your bluebirds gave up?

Tammy

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