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Watching the young ones come back has to be a most satisfying experience. I hope mine do the same.
btw. good work on the HOSP troublemakers.David
Stafford, VAJudy, I ordered from Grubco that Carol had recommended. Carol they did accept my 10,000 worm order. I will let you know how that turns out. My starter cup of 1000 from WBU store did not have the air holes in the cup top. I put them in when I got home. As you said, they were neatly packed and in fresh meal.
David
Stafford, VAJudy – Sorry for hijacking your thread with my blues. I will take my progress back to my thread. :(
David
Stafford, VAAll insects have 6 legs. The little growths at the front end of the larva are the beginning of those legs. They help the larva move through whatever medium it is living in (dirt, wood, grain, meal) If you notice in our mealworms those little growths are pointed to help them move. That is why they need to be immobilized before feeding to the youngsters as their throat tissue is still maturing. In some larva there is a pincer or sharp jaw at the mouth end that could bite and injure a tender throat.
Okay, enough entomology. Took this after putting the mealworms in the cage this morning to see if the parents will be okay with the feeder. The nestlings are 8 days old. Fecal sac ready for disposal.
David
Stafford, VARight Carol. The activity is to kill the live bugs or larva as they may bite or their sharp leg appendages may scratch and injure the throat passage of the young birds as the parents try to put them in their beaks. This happen in a lot of the small bird species.
David
Stafford, VADana, so sorry to hear this. Right when you are preparing for good things to happen. You must have had much cooler weather than we did ~150 miles south of you. Lets pray for a better outcome on the second sitting.
David
Stafford, VAJudy and Carol. My papa bird did a similar thing when he first found the feeder. I thought he was eating all of the worms himself but he would peck at them a couple of times and eat a couple, and then pick up 2 or 3 (like in the photo) and head to the nest Mama bird still has not gone to the feeder but she does sit there while the dad bird grabs some for the nestlings.
I did move the dish back to the hook with the cage. I am going to put it in the cage for the night feeding.David
Stafford, VAThanks for the tip Carol. I will look into that. I took this photo this morning just after I put out the mealworms. It looks like papa bird has taken the feeder seriously. He was on the other hook when I took the feeder bowl down to put the worms in. He picked up a mouth full, goes to the box and returned to the bowl twice before flying off with a fecal sac. The female perches on the hook above the feeder bowl but I have not seen her take any.
David
Stafford, VAI bought the whole setup from our Wild Birds Unlimited store in Fredericksburg, VA. I wanted to start small to see what I would need. I can get 5000 from the store and do not have to deal with shipping issues. Since I am unable to go into the shop yet I haven’t been able to explore larger options. They are doing curb-side pickup only for a while longer.
I did the second feeding tonight and it was gone in 20 minutes. I am going to do one more day with the feeder on the hook and then move it back to the cage to see what happens.
David
Stafford, VAThis is so timely Judy and Carol, as I just bought the BBF-1 feeder and 1000 meal worms from our WBU s store on Monday. I put the feeder on a shepherd’s hook near their hook and put a few mealworms in the bowl to see if they would go to the cage. I did not see any activity. They stayed on their hook and looked but did not go to the cage. Yesterday I moved the cage to their hook and they still looked but did not go to the cage. Today (a couple of hours ago) I took the cage down, took the bowl out and attached a couple of wires to hold it on their shepherd’s hook, Put in about 20 meal worms and watched. About 20 minutes from when I put it out Dad bird had cleaned out the bowl feeding the nestlings. I am going to put some more worms out tonight to see if mom will join in. Judy you need them to get used to this new activity – as I found out. Just putting a feeder out and expecting them to jump right in is unrealistic. Mine took 3 days. Maybe you can get better results by introducing the uncovered bowl with the mealworms first. Happy feeding
David
Stafford, VAWe are right here hoping with you. We had 4 continuous cold evenings, 3 in the 30s and 1 29 degrees. But Mama bird must have kept them warm. I participated in the foam and cardboard insulation parade that several of the members tried. I now have to remove the package before it gets too warm. I had very strong winds so I attached mine with an adhesive putty. I am not sure how easy it will be to remove though. I was wanting to put up a new box anyway.
David
Stafford, VASorry to hear that Tammy. It has been a rough spring. Better luck on the next sitting.
David
Stafford, VAYou are right, Carol. I just do it for record keeping. As I look back through past photos – they all look the same. That is why I started to use the date stamp on them so that I could tell which year the brood took place.
David
Stafford, VAThat is great Rich. It is great when they trust you like that. I have not had the experience with blues as I have not been feeding them the mealworms and now that I want to get started I find the cage feeder on the forum is out of stock. Any one know of a commercial retailer that may have them?
I have had humming birds come to a feeder in my hand and even use my finger as a perch
David
Stafford, VA
