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My 5 white eggs hatched yesterday, Friday June 2. It has been very hot (close to 90 degrees) for several days so I finally put my Styrofoam heat shield on their box. I am trying to get the bluebird parents (new pair) to eat mealworms like my previous pairs have always done, but they have not picked up on how good they are yet. This is very unusual for me as I have been feeding bluebirds live mealworms for lots of years. Main thing now is that the parents feed the babies bugs and that they fledge successfully. Good luck to everyone.
Great news Dana. Do you remember/know how long it took for the eggs to hatch after Mama was brooding them?
Well, mama blue how has five white eggs as of today – hope she begins incubating right away. It has been a slow nesting seems like. But sure am glad they finally got “on the stick.”
Only have one HOSP around now – been keeping an eye on his box but don’t believe he has a mate yet because there are just a few pieces of grass in the box. My other two boxes are empty.Thanks, Judy, for more information on this. I did read about the small percentage of white eggs but never got the info that if the mama laid one white one they would ALL be white. Like the old saying goes, you learn something every day! Waiting for the 4th egg today. I have a spooker up but have not put a wren guard on because I do not have any wrens around – had only one nest of “sticks” a wren made some time back but none lately – it is all HOSP around (which I quickly trap & dispose of) I will probably put one on after 4th or 5th egg is laid.
Well, my 2nd BB egg today was also a white one – sure am curious about this to see if they all will be white. The pair of blues are protecting their nest very well – won’t let anything hardly get close to the box, which is just great for me.
I remembered today to put some grease on the bottom of the pole to keep ants and other unwanted climbers from getting up the pole since I don’t have a metal baffle under this box.Well, they must have heard me – found my 1st egg around 11:30 and we promptly put on the sparrow spooker. But guess what – the EGG IS WHITE! I googled this and found out that 4-5 percent of bluebird eggs are white – will be anxious to see if the rest of them are white or blue. I don’t care – just so I get bluebirds out of this mania! What a begging of a hopefully successful season.
P.S. hope all the human mothers here had a wonderful mother’s day last weekend.Thanks David & Todd – my pair have built a really tall nest which was finished yesterday, May 13 I believe, and I am just waiting on the first BB egg. I believe the pair have mated but it does take a day or so for egg development and laying. I will keep a watchful eye – have updated my sparrow spooker with new tapes and should be ready to go after that egg is laid.
Now, if I can just keep those miserable HOSP from bothering this box – they have 3 others to use and I am trapping from those 3 vacant ones – having pretty good luck after they get their nest partly started and then I set the trap.
Todd, sounds like something climbed up the pole and got the eggs – probably a cat or raccoon, etc. anything that climbs. Most people try to put up a barrier like a stove pipe, or grease the poll with heavy axle grease. Good luck.Oh, Serena, I am SO sorry to hear your story! We all know this is a possibility and is why we try to trap them to avoid having new HOSP babies. It would be SO SAD to find what you did in your nestbox. There are pictures of this happening on our “Bible website” called “Sialis”. http://www.Sialis.org is their website and is just full of useful information. I would be weeping all day like you did if this happened to me. We all learn by mistakes.
P.S. I believe a hard, quick rap on something will humanely dispose of the HOSP – I personally don’t believe the exhaust pipe would be the way to do this. Better luck next time.
P.S. That VanErt trap does the job when set properly, etc.Congrats, David – although newborns aren’t really pretty, they will be beautiful in a few days! And sounds like mama is doing great – protecting those newborns!
