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Over the years on this forum we’ve gone from suggesting a wren guard with just a front to one with sides too because the wrens have found the hole when there are no sides. But I see so many wren guards with only fronts still on FB groups and other places. Is it just a matter of time do you think? I have just a tad experience with wrens.
Tammy
I used a shoebox to block the sides in a nest that had already been attacked by wrens and it worked great. YMMV.
Plus my blues learned to chase off the wrens. Not sure which was the trick but last nesting went fine and these are 14 days old and too bug for wren attacks,now I’m obsessed about snakes, raccoons, and cats.
I wish I could have just followed the shoe box plan. Unfortunately, my bluebird house (which was originally bought for the TRES) has a reverse gable on the front. I used heavy cardboard to cut the peak and left tabs on the front and sides. It sits about 3.5 inches out from the hole. I covered the cardboard in clear packing tape to protect from weather and used small screws to attach it to the house. I know I’m a little late. . .egg #4 appeared yesterday, but at least it is up. Now I just have to make sure that the bluebirds learn to work around it.
Susan
PennsylvaniaOne day I was stapling yet another cracker box to use as a guard. When I got it finished, the light bulb came on in my head. Hey, I thought. This looks just like a shoebox with one side removed. Tada!
Susan, I bet she’ll figure it out. It’s a rare bird who doesn’t.
Gin
Atlanta, GAWell, she figured it out. To be honest, I am not sure if she stopped at 4 eggs or if she laid another this morning. I put the wren guard on at about 6:30 a.m. I was planning to give her some time to adjust and possibly lay another egg before I went poking around with my mirror. The last two days, she and papa have shown up at around 8 a.m., and she has had another egg in there by 9 a.m. I waited until after 8 o’clock, but she was in the box on the eggs. I guess that means she’s done laying eggs, but I’m still not sure if it’s 4 or 5.
Susan
PennsylvaniaSusan, it is better to wait until closer to noon to check for new eggs – most lay them earlier BUT not always, and you would not want to scare her off the nest in the middle of egg-laying because she could drop it & break it. I, too, get anxious to peek and this year I checked at 11:30 a.m. and she was on the nest but no new egg that day. BUT next day she laid the 4th egg. So I am not sure if that is what happened here, scared her off in the middle of laying an egg. But she is incubating 4 eggs now. Thankfully.
Thanks for the advice, Carol. I will certainly remember that in the future. This afternoon I saw mama, papa and one of their babies all getting meal worms together, so I figured I had an opening to check the nest. There are now 5 eggs. Mama spent a lot of time in the house this afternoon/evening. I am assuming that she is done laying. Has anyone ever had 6 eggs?
Susan
PennsylvaniaNever had 6 but I’m in very far south so nests here are smaller.
Thanks to Gin for the shoebox idea. Everyone has one and it worked perfectly…Susan, 6 eggs is a little rare, but I remember here on this forum one BB pair had 7 eggs, but I don’t remember if they went on to hatch or what. 7 would be way too many in a regular size box and 6 would be a tight fit I believe.
Well, this box definitely has a larger base than a regular bluebird house. I deliberately got a TRES house with a larger base because I had read that they had more babies at a time. However, when the birds were competing over the houses, the bluebirds ended up taking over the TRES house. I’ll just have to wait and see :-)
Susan
Pennsylvania
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