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David, I use a cage feeder for feeding mealworms. Absolutely NO to giving them a continual supply. The worms only are meant to be used as a treat, not their steady diet, although they would probably go ahead & eat their insects, etc. You would spend a fortune if you kept them with a continuous supply – but that is your choice I guess. Most worm suppliers recommend about 10 worms twice a day per bluebird and this works good for me, the worms are usually gone in a matter of 5 minutes. Of course when babies are born you will be using more, but again they are not meant to be their main diet. They need to know how to hunt for and eat their natural food which are insects. Yes, they usually return after a vacation period, but our trips are usually only are about 4 days so I do not have experience with an extended vacation. I don’t remember (been feeding worms 11 seasons now) but I don’t think they have any trouble with a good cage feeder – it is getting used to coming to the worms period is what takes a little patience. Good luck. Don’t forget that the worms will drown in just a little water and also intense heat will kill them – more good reasons to only put out a few at a time.
David, congrats on the new baby blues! But aren’t they unsightly looking when first born to be so beautiful around fledging time. Great pictures – Connie don’t give up – I thought I was not going to have any nestings but ended up coming home from a few days vacation and found 1 egg and now 5 are being incubated. There was no sign of even a nest when I left and was only gone 3 days.
Congrats, Dana – sorry about the one that did make it – things happen – hope you have another nesting soon.
Again, rule of thumb is one guard at a time, to be sure mama accepts the 1st one, and then put up the other one – you will need to sort of monitor her after that 1st guard is put up to be sure she goes in & lays another egg. Good luck.
Judy, well I can see your problem. But the rule of thumb is to not put up the spooker or guard before the 1st egg or the blues may not accept the box and thus, no BB eggs. But every situation is different. A lot would depend I believe on whether these blues are “your pair” and have previously accepted predator controls. I truly believe the ideal situation is to have more than one box up, at least 2 or possibly 3, so that you can let the HOSP & wrens bond to one box and keep them busy taking out their nesting material and they will keep trying. I realize not everyone has the room or desire to have more than one box, but this is the ideal situation. Right now I have been removing HOSP (& trapping) & wren material from 3 boxes and the bluebirds have 5 eggs in their box. Other people here may have a different solution.
Tammy is absolutely correct about the HOSP & trapping – necessary thing. I always have 1 or 2 boxes which I trap in while the blues occupy a different box – works really well.
Also, David is right on about the weather – never seen such a slow season start and now here in Mid-Missouri we have gone from winter kind of weather straight into summer, supposed to be 90 degrees today. My blues decided to try my neighbor’s tree cavity earlier but something happened there and now they are back home where they belong, mama incubating 5 eggs, so try to be patient & good luck!
Really – I need to wash that spatula, Gin? Golly, gee – that’s lots of work (ha, ha) Thanks for the idea, but it seems like the nest has settled down somewhat and mama is incubating now. I have taken precautions as far as climbing critters so I’m thinking to leave well enough alone, but will check the nest in a day or so when I find her off the nest.
Hang in there Connie, I was about to give up also and I left town for a few days and behold – one blue eggs when I got back on Monday, and now I have four. Good luck!
Thanks, Connie, as of today I have four eggs and expect another tomorrow as she has not started incubating yet. Put wren guard up first (as I know there is at least 2 around) and then put up sparrow spooker yesterday and she laid this 4th egg so everything is going well so far. EXCEPT I ordered some meal worms which were supposed to be here yesterday and did not show up today. I am completely out and my blues don’t like going back to the peanut butter suet, but that is all I have – hope they come in tomorrow (Friday) and all will be fine. Hope I don’t have to make a trip to Kansas City (60 miles) to get some to get by.
Well, my blues must have heard me, as they have moved back home! I believe the nest/eggs/babies or whatever they had at my neighbors’ got destroyed or something. Anyway, as I posted on another site “I’ve got an egg” I now have 2 eggs for sure and I believe 3, as I saw the pair at the box this morning and I have to be gone until around 1 pm when I will check for sure. I wasn’t sure if this was a new pair or my previous pair, but after watching for 2 days I’m sure it is my same pair, as they have been going from the mealworm bowl to my backyard area where the nest is and NOT to the neighbor’s. YEAH!
Tammy, I put the photos on a DVD disc and then use my DVD player to show them on a TV screen or projector screen. This works best as I am able to control the flow of the pictures, in other words I narrate as I show the photos and some take longer to explain than others. This works best for me but some people might prefer to use a Power Point. I have lots of my own photos plus some from Dave Keener, Kenn (from St. Louis) and others who so generously opened their showings to me for a short time in order to do this. This took me all one winter to put together but was well worth it. My one about a week ago was held at the local library and our local TV rental place let me use one of their TV’s for just advertising they had donated it. The library had all the stuff but I did not like how it ran, since I was only allotted about 40 minutes for the show & question/answer period & their stuff seemed to be too slow.
Tammy is exactly right – when those HOSP “bond” with a box that means they will leave other boxes alone for Bluebirds (maybe) and that I will not have to worry about them any more because they will be “gone”. I usually wait until there is an active pair building a nest and then get them before the nest is too large.
Thanks, Gin – we still are having some very cool nights, so this will keep them warm I guess – if YOU say so! I just talked to this neighbor tonight and asked her if she had seen a pair of bluebirds, and she said yes, and described exactly where they were, which is exactly where I watch them go to AFTER they eat my mealies!
