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So sorry to hear of this loss. It is rare that a male would sit on the remaining egg until they hatch. I would remove the nest and eggs, clean the box and hope that the male will be able to attract a new mate for another attempt. Does your nestbox have a predator guard on it and a baffle to keep out climbing predators such as snakes, raccoons, squirrels, etc.?
Good luck on your next nesting.David
Stafford, VACarol, It is not like the young ones to leave the parents so soon. They probably found a cool tree to stay at for the day and came back when they got hungry.
Jamie, I had not heard about the blackberries. Another reason for some fruit in the garden.
Have a good day.
David
Stafford, VAGin, Thanks for the info about the pupae. I did count them when I did the cleanup last week just to see a theoretical number of what could happen based on the different numbers that appear in the information on the Internet. I got a bit concerned when it looked like I could have 350 female beetles laying 200 eggs per beetle – 70K mealworms. It will not be that many as some of the pupae have died off -like almost 25%, but that is okay. I 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. It gives me something to do during this “Stay-at Home” time.
David
Stafford, VAI also think Carol is right about them going to the “tough love’ routine. This is my first year for meal worms and it has been interesting to watch the fledglings. I have 4 out of the 5 that fledged coming to the feeder. Sometimes they are with papa bird as mom is incubating the new eggs. Sometimes only 1 or 2 show up without the parent. Like Carol and most of those that feed mealworms I only put around 50 or so in the dish twice a day, and I whistle something like the male bird when I go to the feeder. Mom bird generally comes out of the nestbox and flies to a tree where she watches. and sometimes she flies off and comes back with 1 or 2 of the other fledglings. It is really a crap-shoot as to whether they will appear right when you go out or if you will have to leave the mealworms in the feeder and go get a cup of coffee and wait. Like we said – they seem to ignore the instruction manual, rule book and every other “logical” things we know about these birds
David
Stafford, VAWe are just going to have 4. She is incubating so I expect the 4 to hatch around July 6 – after all of the fireworks. With a little luck and warm weather we could possibly get a 3rd sitting in before fall.
A friend in a support group here in Stafford says that he already has a third hatch of bluebirds and could have a 4th nesting if his are true to form. He indicated that he has had 4 nestings in 2 of the past 3 years. He must be doing something right.nest with 4 eggs from yesterday
David
Stafford, VAThat should be one very well fed youngster. And yes, I agree on the Grubco order. The worms were much larger than the initial 1,000 I bought from WBU. Thank you for your recommendation.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Carol. I have refrigerated some of the larva but even they develop pupae after a time. It has been just about a month since I received the big shipment (10K) mealworms,and they were turning into pupae in about 10 days. I believe that I read in some of the literature on bluebirds that they will take the pupae, as it is still soft and moist like the larva. I counted last night and I have a total of around 800 pupae. At 50% females and a mere 150 eggs per female, I could have over 60,000 mealworms by August or September. I will need to feed them larger helpings or freeze them for winter. If they lay more than 150 each, I am going to have to find more blues to feed.
David
Stafford, VAWe are up to 4 eggs now but it started to rain toward the nest, so i did’t get any new photos today. Will try again tomorrow when there should be a full house of 5.
David
Stafford, VALove it. Just Keep it up. They will return when they are ready. You are keeping a “safe house” for them.
David
Stafford, VAPhilliblues – Mine just started their 2nd nesting. Possibly 3rd egg today. So there is still time. Good luck for the rest of your season.
David
Stafford, VA
