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Carol and Julie. It is good to hear about your fledglings and HOSP adventures. I had similar trouble with the remnants of “Laura” a few days ago with the heavy rain and winds. I have only seen 3 of the 4 of our last brood lately. Julie, I am impressed with your HOSP trapping. That makes a dent in the population. I have not seen any thing but Bluebirds at my mealworm feeder. Maybe they are used to the open feeders. The Goldfinches are the most prevalent birds at the feeder now.
I do have two drawers of hatched mealworms. I know there are a lot (no count yet) as I see lots of “shedding” from the molting of the young worms in the drawers. They will be ready for feeding for the late fall and winter. I will store the pupae in the refrigerator until January for next season.
I did clean out the next box and closed it up until winter for roosting during the cold nights.
It has been a relatively good year. I hope we can enjoy the rest of this crazy year and look forward to another season of Bluebirds in 2021.
David
Stafford, VAhere is a photo of a couple of baby mealworm larva. That is the tip of a mechanical pencil and a carrot slice on the right side. These are about 10 days old. Very small now but will grow to feeding size in about 30 days.
David
Stafford, VAWatching the fledglings learn to use the feeder themselves is fun. Great news Judy.
David
Stafford, VACongratulations Carol Good luck with the rest of their maturing. I had the opposite size with my last batch of worms. Mine are small. (had to get a supply from WBU as Grubco could not ship due to the heat.) My blues do not seem to like the smaller worms as they leave about half of the feeding (50 + or -) in the bowl. I have reduced the number that I take out to 30 and that seems to be okay. I don’t know whether it is the heat or the size of the worms that is causing the change.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Judy. I left the mealworms. It is still raining and I don’t feel like getting them. I will watch tomorrow to see if they return to the mealworm feeder like they did with the last group of fledglings.
David
Stafford, VAWell, the 4 blues fledged either late yesterday evening or early this morning. I took some mealworms out for the evening feeding and did not see either the parents or any of the young. It was raining and the wind was blowing so I decided to see if they were still around – but found the nest box empty. The were feeding yesterday during the day but I never say any of the 4 come out of the nest. I will clean the nestbox tomorrow -after this much needed rain, and see if they return for a third sitting.
David
Stafford, VAGlad to hear everyone is “making it” through this extremely hot weather. I am concerned like you, Donna about a 3rd nest. My 4 young are due to fledge on Wednesday. I just checked the weather forecast for our area (Stafford, VA) and it shows 92-100 degree temperatures everyday thru August and into mid September. That was as far as the calendar went, so I am sure there are more hot days to follow. It is so bad that Grubco is holding my mealworm order due to the heat. I may have to go the the Bird store soon for a temporary fix.
Stay cool!!!David
Stafford, VACongratulations on your trapping success and the elimination of the pests. These results are good to see at this time of the year – especially when you are catching recent hatches. Eliminate a generation now so you don’t have to deal with it later.
David
Stafford, VACarol. Good news on the 4 eggs. What are you using for the heat shield? I am experiencing the same slow-down o meal worm feeding. Several feedings this past week have had very few worms taken and the first fledglings do not appear as much as they did before. Mom and dad are feeding the 4 hatchlings but not from the feeder. Maybe the worms are too large right now. I don’t have new hatches from the many beetle eggs to offer yet. The rest of the worms have grown quite a bit, even with the refrigeration.
David
Stafford, VAI am doing a test to see how many eggs 4 female beetles would lay in a week. I was able to find 4 pair in my beetle drawer and put them in a small container. I will try to count on Saturday.
Decided to let the eggs hatch, then sift out the young mealworms. It is much easier on the eyes to count the baby worms than try to deal with the almost microscopic eggs.
David
Stafford, VAThat’s funny, Gin. Haven’t thought about going into business yet. I’m having enough trouble convincing the wife that I need to get a 5 drawer plastic drawer set from Walmart to replace the 3 drawer set that I am about to outgrow.
New ones (worms) have not hatched yet but I can see thousands of eggs in the drawer. We will see what this first batch looks like before I think about building a heated shed outside for “production”. I have been collecting lots of “carry-out plastic containers from restaurants though.David
Stafford, VAThanks Carol and Judy. It is get to find a “pretty” baby bird picture until they put on some feathers.
Judy – our hatches are pretty close. I am hoping that it stays warm enough for a third nest.David
Stafford, VA
