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Well my birdseed has nuggets of some kind of fruit stuff in it, and that may be what they go for.
Waiting now, should be about one more week. I do a quick box check every afternoon to make sure eggs look good, mom and pop don’t seem to mind. I’ll have to pick up some calcium carb stuff to add to the live worms.
Hi all– so we have four eggs now. Mama BB started incubating a day or two ago. Papa is running off the cardinal pair that show up and get too close or try to eat their live mealworms. He also runs off the squirrels! It’s entertaining to watch. Papa lets Mama BB have most of the live worms (the one last year ate his share). He still taps on the window every morning. I’m amazed by these birds’ dedication; Mama sits or stands with her head sticking out of the birdhouse and Papa keeps watch on a branch nearby. They have a spot on the edge of the roof where they wait together while I fix the worms, then as soon as I go inside she swoops down to eat. She’s such a little thing, maybe on the younger side? It’s hard to believe four eggs could fit in there! I’d post a pic if I could figure out how to do it– looked at the Imgur thing but couldn’t figure out which one to download or how it works. Wonder if video clips can be posted here?
Lisa
Our new bluebird tenants have started building their nest! They’re very busy this morning. The box is just a few feet away from a back window so we have a great view.
I’m in Georgia and we’ve had them back for a few weeks now. Seems like they just left a few months ago, they weren’t gone very long! Global warming I guess. I’m hoping to beat our record of 7 babies from one box last summer. Good luck to you this season!
Lisa
Update— managed to get unhatched egg out when babies shifted to the other side. It was 7-8 days since other eggs hatched, so I wasn’t worried about whether it was viable. I candled it and judging from online candling pics, the egg was never fertilized (all yellow inside). Makes me feel better that it wasn’t due to the hot weather! Three other babies looking great, getting fat on the mealworms and putting on pin feathers—
Carol, thanks as always for your reply! My husband made a temporary shield out or cardboard and aluminum foil which seems to have helped, but it’s not quite the right size to shield the area needed so we’re working on modifying it or may just make a styrofoam one. All three birds are sticking their heads up now when I check on them and seem to be doing well. Mama and Papa are doing a great job and one of the young ones from the first batch tags along sometimes too! There’s still an unhatched egg in the box, not sure what happened there but the other birds hatched before the weather got really hot, so maybe that wasn’t the cause. We’re wondering whether to try to get the egg out, worried it may break and make a mess?!?
Lisa
This is great info David, very helpful. I just got the cage feeder and hung it up, will be trying the steps you outlined and then taking the dried mealworms down soon. Not sure if I want to raise mealworms but will buy them in spring/summer. You and Carol have been so informative and as a bluebird newbie I appreciate it. We do have titmice and Carolina wrens coming by at times, but at least I can keep the Cardinals out of the live worms!
Thank you Carol! A few more questions if I may– I looked at the TMB cage feeder, it’s expensive but I guess will need to go ahead and spring for it. Will Mama and Papa know not to feed the babies my dried mealworms (I read they’re not good for babies), or should I take those feeders down when the babies hatch? Also how many live mealworms do you recommend putting out each day for Mama and Papa and four babies? And I read new babies may have trouble eating large mealworms, so should I get small/medium ones?
I’ll try to post pics here when they hatch if I can figure out how to do that.
Thanks for helping this bluebird newbie! They have really helped my frame of mind this Spring with the pandemic etc.
Lisa
