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Today was a good day. Mom and dad birds had the young ones at the feeder just a few minutes ago after I put out the evening mealworms. Mom fluttered around the cage but just could not bring herself to go in. She clung to the sides of the cage, which is better than she has done before. And then she went in, grabbed a few worms and flew off, leaving dad bird with 3. He proceeded to the cage and took a few worms back to 2 of the little ones.
The third one, I believe the one from the photo yesterday, followed Dad and grabbed on to the cage wires. After dad left, this one went into the cage and proceeded to take a worm from the bowl. He is still there. Dad is still feeding the other 2.
I have really done nothing to entice the birds to go in. They are just following the parent’s example.
Carol, Yes, it is really fun to watch the young fledglings grow. I expedt that the other birds will follow the leader soon. BTW, we have a completed nest again.No eggs yet but there will be.
David
Stafford, VARich, have you got pupae in your breeders yet. I have been sorting mine every other day. Yesterday, just for the heck of it I counted the pupae that I had collected and found that I had 300+. If 50% turn out to be females and they lay 100 eggs I am looking at another 15,000 additional mealworms in a couple of months. And the pupae keep coming. That total could be way higher if they produce eggs like the literature says of 300 to 500 eggs per female. I plan to refrigerate some of them to slow down the growth and metamorphose time. That is the one thing that I did not consider going into the breeding.
I do have some friends at church that have bluebirds in their yards that may need some mealworms this winter.David
Stafford, VAThanks Carol and Judy. Dad bird does use the cage but mom bird is reluctant. I took the feeder bowl out again to get the little ones used to it and will put it back in the cage, with the top off, tomorrow. That was how I started them before the hatch. W will see how that goes.
David
Stafford, VAHappy for both of you on your second nests and eggs. My birds started their second nest a day ago and it is almost complete. The fledglings come to the mealworm feeder to be fed, and now they are showing up around noon looking at the feeder. I really want to go out and give them a snack but haven’t fallen for their plot.
David
Stafford, VANature can be cruel at times. It is sad when we find something like this. I can only encourage you to not let it get you down but resolve to help the parent birds start anew. Even if you have not seen them HOSP are still around and dangerous. Do what you can to curb their population.
Good luck on the next nesting.David
Stafford, VACarol and all. I ordered mine from Grubco last Thursday before the 3 day holiday, so they did not ship until this Tuesday and arrived on Wednesday, just after noon. Had them in the containers in about an hour. I was a bit surprised at how the little critters were eating the paper that was in the shipping bag and in every fold there seemed to be a dozen or more. I have another day of feeding to do before I start refrigerating. Like Rich, I have about a third of the worms setup for breading. I want to see how that goes. I will post some progress on that later.
David
Stafford, VAGood for you Rich. Yes, it is sometimes hard to let them go, but that is natures’ way and there is not much that we can to to change it. What gives you, me, and the others here the satisfaction is knowing that we have put another brood of birds, no matter their number, into the trees for a shot at life. and we await the next nesting as we did the first one.
Watch the young ones grow.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Judy. I will try that tonight. Just got my order of mealworms from Grubco and am going to give them a treat tonight (a couple more that usual)
David
Stafford, VAThat must have been exciting to watch, Julie. You have a very protective male. I have only seen a female BB knock a female HOSP off the nestbox a few years ago. We do not have many HOSP around the yard at all. That would have been a good video to post if you had caught it.
David
Stafford, VAThank you Julie. This is my firs experience with feeding mealworm, like you. So I am learning this mealworm feeding myself. Be sure to listen to Carol and the others that have been feeding mealies for a long time.
Another tiny success this morning. I put the mealworms in the feeder and saw both parents sitting on the other shepherd’s hook watching as I loaded the dish with ~60 worms. Neither one went to the cage after I left. This was about 7:45 this morning. My wife said “Maybe the babies aren’t awake this early. You could have slept longer.”
I think she was right. At exactly 8:30 papa bird left the hook and took a bug or worm from the lawn to the box and then flew back to the cage. I finally got a shot of a bluebird in flight.
The female flew around the cage after he left, looked but didn’t go in.
Just after he reentered the cage the female flew around the cage again and approached it but never grabbed on or tried to enter.
So we will wait to see what happens this evening.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Judy and Carol. I thought that if they could see the mealworms in the dish in the cage without the top, it would ease the anxiety of entering a closed cage. It seem’s to have worked. Here is a shot of dad bird surveying the cage. I can imagine him saying “What’s with the closed top? We did so well without it yesterday.”
He fluttered around the cage a couple of times, then grabbed onto the wires to survey the inside with the dish
He then entered the cage and started picking up worms for the nestlings.
He loaded up on mealworms twice and waited for mom bird to come out of the nestbox. She never did go into the cage but flew around it and sat on the hook above it and beside it as dad bird did. Maybe tomorrow
David
Stafford, VAI put the dish in the cage this morning and left the top open so they could acclimate to the new location. No problem at all. Dad bird was first. He completed 2 trips to the nest box before mom showed up.
She watched while he loaded up again and then jumped right in with him.
So tonight I think that I will just close the top and see if they will use it as their own private diner.
David
Stafford, VAThanks Carol and Judy. I took the bowl out of the feeder (1) because neither bird seem interested in going into the cage to get the worms, even though I put a good amount of worms in the bowl to be visible and (2) since I took down my other bird feeders several years ago when HOWR and HOSP, Blue Jays, and others became a problem with the Bluebirds, I have not had many of them in the yard . They do fly to the trees in the woods behind the nest box but so far, have not shown an interest in the mealworms. I did see a flight of 4 tree swallows fly over and around the feeder yesterday after the Bluebirds had emptied it but have not seen them since. I do intend to put it into the cage as soon as I think both birds will go for it. I am going to give mom bird another day and then will move it inside. Carol, this is the BFF-1 advertised in the Forum compete with the feeder dish. It is sold at the WBU. When I tried to order it here, it was “Sold Out” with unknown date available.
David
Stafford, VAThis mealworm feeder is fun. I took the mealworms out this morning and put them in the feeder dish, and took the remaining worms back to the garage. When I came back out of the garage both parents were sitting on the hook, as I went up the steps to my deck I looked back and saw the female on the bowl picking up mealworms. That is the first time I have seen her take the worms. Ran to get my camera and took a couple of shots.
David
Stafford, VAThat is good to know Carol. I am headed to Walmart to pick up several storage containers. I am using a dinner tray that we got from an oriental carry-out a week ago it seems to be a good fit for the 1000 mealworms in that WBU container I just put holes in the top for air and ruined it for whatever my wife was saving it for.
David
Stafford, VA
