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You can put some kind of corrugated board on a nestbox roof with a spacer in between and that helps a lot. Martin landlords put shade over their gourds by using corrugated boards and other things. Here in the north, it gets hot in there but they will be fine. It’s good to have ventilation holes or slots in the sides of your box too. Or a big opening like the Gilwood box has. Any shade helps!!
Tammy
PhillyBlues…they might have all jumped because of mites. It’s been a very rough year for a lot of Martin landlords so you are not alone. Many have had many nests of babies that have died because of all the rain.
I’m the future another thing you can try is put a hole reducer on the box and put the baby back in the nestbox. That will keep the baby in but the parents can still feed it. But you have to watch and see if they’re feeding it though. It’s all just trial and error and sometimes doesn’t work. Sorry about your awful year! That’s a terrible feeling. I had a year like that awhile ago.Tammy
Mockingbird can be awful. They have protected my mealworms at times, not letting any other birds eat. They do settle down.
Tammy
Sorry about worrying you. LOL
Yes, I don’t think that we have many snake problems either here in NW Ohio. In the south landlords are always finding rat snakes in their boxes and martin gourds. I know we do have rat snakes but the baffle seems to stop them here. And when I’ve a nestbox without a baffle I haven’t had predation but I try really hard to put them on every nestbox pole. Raccoons can be an issue for us northerners, though. They are always scavenging for food. I’m not judging you. I have 2 poles at home out of 9 that don’t have a baffle right now. And one on the trail.I’ll try to find a link to a video with a raccoon digging inside a nestbox. I’ve seen it but just am not sure whether I can find it again.
Tammy
You can definitely put your boxes that far apart. I have a chickadee and tree swallow nesting about 10-15 feet apart on the trail I monitor.
If I were you I would wait until the pair lay their first egg in that new box before putting that old box back up. You don’t want them switching boxes at this time.
It’s best if you just let that pretty box be a decorative box and put something black in it that would make it look like a hole but no bird could go in.
That being said….if it’s a fairly safe box you can put it up for another species. Not many birds are cavity nesters. But you could get a chickadee. They are the most common. Titmice, nuthatches and then tree swallows are other cavity nesters.
You’ll probably eventually decide that you need another “good” box to put up to replace that one. But I think for now you could see what you got.
I think Chickadees only nest once per season and they are done nesting. I may be wrong about chickadees. Same with Tree Swallows.Tammy
Rich, funny that you caught that. They definitely will remove eggs.
Claire, do you have a predator guard on your pole? That’s important. If the nest wasn’t messed up I doubt your eggs are missing because of a raccoon. Snakes also climb up poles and eat eggs. You’ll see no sign that snakes predated the nest…except missing eggs.
Tammy
You are so observant. I don’t notice those things. Maybe there’s another bluebird nesting in that directions. They are so territorial. They know where they want to hunt. Give it more time for hatching. Usually they don’t hatch later but I have had it happen. I don’t know why. So I always err on the side of caution.
Tammy
Like Jean said, Fluker’s is a very reputable company. I don’t normally buy from them but bought crickets for my purple martins later winter/early spring. They saw that the crickets were running late and was worried that they would die so they re-sent my order and texted me about it without me even realizing that the crickets may be late. I was impressed. I freeze the crickets and offer thawed ones to my martins. My bluebirds LOVED them too. I like that I don’t have to keep them alive.
I always buy mealworms from Rainbow Mealworms in bulk, 5000 at a time. I think they are from CA but they are a great company and usually they have been cheaper than other companies. They have wonderful customer service too.
https://www.rainbowmealworms.net/?srsltid=AfmBOoo-8VZK52oSYSEu2ts0cHmMT9cftW2vHjjoJA8nSzGwEWuAEwnnTammy
If you can’t get that young one to stay in, you could take it to a a nature center that does songbird rehab.
Tammy
Swallows get mites very easily, especially purple martins. My tree swallows get them occasionally too but not often. The Purple Martin community uses Sevin with 5% carbaryl to put under the nest. but that is hard to find. So the new thing that is recommended is 0.25% Permethrin “Garden and Poultry” dust. You only put a 1/3 of a tsp under the nest but it works very quickly. You don’t put it on the nestlings.
If your totally against chemicals then you’ll need to do a nest change and wipe the box down with alcohol wipes.
The problem is those tree swallows are probably at the age where they won’t want to stay in the nest once they’ve learned to get out.
You have to weigh the pros and cons. If they’re going to fledge in a few days you might decide to just let it go.Tammy
