Banner Year For Bluebirds

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
In years past we only put up one or two bluebird houses, but this year we expanded to four. All of the houses have been occupied at some point during the Spring & Summer, usually simultaneously. To date we've had 10 clutches with a total of 35 successful fledgings leaving the nest, 2 nests got raided by snakes.

This little fellow just hatched today, and if he and his nest mates (along with the other nest that just had eggs laid in it this week) make it in this heat, we'll be well over 40 for the year.


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Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
That's awesome!
I use a piece of pvc pipe or piece of gutter downspout over a t-post or 4 inch treated post for my boxes and have really cut down on snakes getting to the nest boxes. I always hated to see the tail of a snake sticking out of my bluebird boxes. We lost a next of brown thrasher babies to our local flock of crows and that was hard, seeing how we feed the crows and they keep the hawks and owls from bothering our chickens too much. Nature is a tough Mother.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
That's awesome!
I use a piece of pvc pipe or piece of gutter downspout over a t-post or 4 inch treated post for my boxes and have really cut down on snakes getting to the nest boxes. I always hated to see the tail of a snake sticking out of my bluebird boxes. We lost a next of brown thrasher babies to our local flock of crows and that was hard, seeing how we feed the crows and they keep the hawks and owls from bothering our chickens too much. Nature is a tough Mother.

All my bird houses have snake baffles on them, and no overhanging tree branches. The only way I can figure they're getting in is that its a really big mother of a rat snake that can raise himself vertically straight up from the ground.
 

roundball

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Sounds like you've made a big contribution to the BB population around there, good going !
 

ncscrubmaster

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I used a cedar post inside a white vinyl fence post. I’ve not had any problems. Keep up the good work.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
That is fantastic! I'm sure Frank would be proud! I'll be sure to tell him next time I see him.

These are all bird houses from Frank's organization. My wife knows him much better than I do, she's always in his shop picking up sawdust for her garden paths.

I used a cedar post inside a white vinyl fence post. I’ve not had any problems. Keep up the good work.

This is the setup I use, a length of gas pipe & chimney stove metal with mesh wire screening inside for the baffle.

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