Well first off, I live in Massachusetts, Zone 6 and winters tend to get pretty cold sometimes but not anything to drastic. I can over winter it in my cellar but that's down 3 flights of stairs and depending on how big a container I plant it in, carrying it down there could be a problem. I will probably just leave it on my balcony, there's a roof that covers it, which will protect it from the snow and I can place it up again the wall of the house; that should help some. The largest container I have is 12" plastic and I'm hoping this will surfice. I purchased "The President" this past spring at Home Depot and it wasn't even 6" high. I transplanted it to a 12" plastic container, using soil, compost, bone meal and spaghum peat moss and to my surprise, it actually bloomed, 4 times for me. The first blossom was beautiful but the other 3 were on the small side. I didn't even expect it to bloom this year, so I can't complain. I'm hoping that my Bluebird will do just as well in the same size container with the same type of soil mixture.

This is caused by brutal cold winds. The dry winds of winter suck all the moisture out of the needles while the tree is dormant, thus not replenishing the moisture that is lost. The result is browned or dead needles. Thin needled pines like these, and white pines, don't handle cold winds well, which makes them terrible windbreaks as well. Joe

These are Blues that have decided to overwinter. They will flock together in the winter, and the second they decide it's time to start nesting, they will chase each other away. Since you have a nest box ready for them, only a single pair will (hopefully) stay. The others will disperse to find their own nesting spots. I have had flocks of 10 in winter, but this year I'm only getting up to 4 coming for mealworms and suet. Sometimes more will show up if the weather gets really bad though. If the weather gets really cold, supplying them with water is really important. I keep a heated bird bath on my deck. I'm north of you in MA.

Hi Luke, I am in south east Ohio and we've had bluebirds here. I have several bluebird houses around the yard and I saw 5 bluebirds in a tree near one of the houses. It was getting dark and one by one they landed on the board fence where the birdhouse was and all five went into the house. I've never seen that before and was suprised since I've heard how territorial they are. Hopefully someone will answer your question about helping them through the winter. What are bluebird feeding pellets. I've never ran across those when I've been buying bird feed. Debby