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Cool! I mean…hot! :) It sure is hot!
I get lazy when it’s hot out and don’t check my boxes as often as I should.Tammy
Sorry, I’m late to see this. Have your bluebirds gotten used to the suet feeder? They will in time but it feels like they never will. My bluebird love my homemade suet too. I feed suet and live mealworms. I have friends that feed dried mealworms but they aren’t good for feeding to nestlings. Something about them getting caught in their throats. ??? They also love crickets that I put in my freezer and thaw for them.
Regarding your suet feeder. If they still aren’t interested, can you put a stick through the feeder so they can perch on the stick and think about going in.Tammy
Phillyblues. I’m late at answering your original question. But I do pair my TRES/EABL boxes about 20 feet apart. They say it can be closer but I’m not sure it works. 20 feet doesn’t always work either but it does give them an option. I miss Carol too. She kind of took over this group and did such a great job of it. She couldn’t get on this group anymore. I helped her once and she got back on but it happened again and she couldn’t figure out how to get back on. She talked about having an old computer and thought maybe that was the problem. I keep reaching out to her to see if I could help her but haven’t heard anything.
AnnieB. Sparrow Spookers work well but I’ve also heard that fishing line works well. It’s important that it is done in particular way. Never put it over the entrance. The bluebird can get tangled in it. I’ll try to give you a link of a good way to place the fishing line.
The Sparrow Spooker is to be put on after the 1st egg is laid and taken down after they fledge. The Monofilament Line supposedly can be put up and kept up.Sparrow Spooker PlaN https://ohiobluebirdsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Sparrow-Spooker-Directions.pdf
Fishing Line Plan: https://ohiobluebirdsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Monofilament-Sparrow-Spooker.pdf
Tammy
TimC. Sorry I never answered. I sometimes don’t see these posts. Forget to look and don’t get notifications. It’s no help to you now but I wait at least a week after projected fledge date and sometimes longer just in case my math was wrong to get rid of eggs. I’m very conservative on getting rid of eggs. I also will mark the eggs with a dot of permanent marker, take a photo and go back after a couple of days to see if they are in a different position. Comparing it with the photo I took. Because the parents, (Mom?) rolls the eggs during incubation.
Phillyblue. I’ve been very lax on the Sparrow Spooker and often regret it too! It feels safe when you aren’t seeing very much HOSP action but then they attack.I put some of those boxes on my property that i took off the walking trail and now have 3 EABL nesting in my backyard and 6 TRES nests. I have some of both on the trail too. No dees this year unfortunately.
Tammy
They may or may not build a nest in the same box. Sometimes when a nestbox is ransacked by a snake or raccoon the birds will take awhile to come back to that nestbox again. You may want to clean it out so there’s no evidence of a predator. Only time will tell.
Tammy
Hey. Sorry that happened. Was your nestbox on a tree or fence? That sounds like a raccoon.
A house wren wouldn’t have removed the entire nest. They would have built on top. If you have wren problem it’s best if you put on a wren guard after they lay a first egg again. Have you had wrens take over nests by putting sticks in it? Usually house sparrows are more of a problem than house wrens are but house wrens can be a difficult problem.Make sure the pole is far enough away from a tree or fencing where a raccoon can’t jump on it and make sure the baffle is near the top of the pole,a couple inches under the nestbox.
Tammy
Hey. Sorry that happened. Was your nestbox on a tree or fence? That sounds like a raccoon.
A house wren wouldn’t have removed the entire nest. They would have built on top. If you have wren problem it’s best if you put on a wren guard after they lay a first egg again. Have you had wrens take over nests by putting sticks in it? Usually house sparrows are more of a problem than house wrens are but house wrens can be a difficult problem.Make sure the pole is far enough away from a tree or fencing where a raccoon can’t jump on it and make sure the baffle is near the top of the pole,a couple inches under the nestbox.
Tammy
Your links are working. I’m sure you know that already.
The ads are quite offensive but I know you can’t help that.
I didn’t read it in detail since we’re out of town but you put quite a bit of work into all that! Impressive.
I know you caught a house sparrow but if you have eggs under your box and the bird escaped through that space at the top of those cheap cedar boxes it could have been a House Wren that did it. I have one of those boxes and house sparrows can’t squeeze through but I had a house wren I was trying to catch and forgot about that space at the top and of course he was able to escape easily. Your space at the top obviously could be larger.
Tammy
Your links are working. I’m sure you know that already.
The ads are quite offensive but I know you can’t help that.
I didn’t read it in detail since we’re out of town but you put quite a bit of work into all that! Impressive.
I know you caught a house sparrow but if you have eggs under your box and the bird escaped through that space at the top of those cheap cedar boxes it could have been a House Wren that did it. I have one of those boxes and house sparrows can’t squeeze through but I had a house wren I was trying to catch and forgot about that space at the top and of course he was able to escape easily. Your space at the top obviously could be larger.Tammy
I get it on taking on too much!
I had to take down 5 of my boxes on a walking trail because it was getting overgrown and house wrens were taking over. The week after we took them down the county mowed it completely down. So I could have left them up. But it was a longer walk to these boxes so I’m not too disappointed. I put up 3 of them up at my house and TRES are investigating. So now I’ have about 11 on my property and only 8 on the walking trail.
The Jeep plant here contacted me last summer though and wanted to put up boxes. They had a Boy Scout make them and then we’ll help put them up. They wanted me to monitor them. I don’t mind doing it a few times a summer but I’m not doing it weekly. Just a couple times a month would be too much I think.Tammy
Congrats. I’m in NW Ohio and I have two nests going on within sight of each other. One with eggs and one with hatchlings.
Tammy
What David said.
I don’t know the scientific answer but I do know from experience that they don’t incubate as much as I think they should. Mine are always off the nest! They don’t need to incubate as much as we think. My husband said to me yesterday that he wondered if the eggs froze because she isn’t incubating…and today they hatched.
Mine always hatch in 12 days…don’t know why. So it could be even April 8th that yours should hatch.
The big problem comes when she hasn’t started incubating because she hasn’t finished laying. That’s when I worry about the cold affecting the eggs. Or when she has newly hatched babies that can’t regulate their own body temperature yet.Tammy
Yay. I have some of that going on here too.