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

Hi Kendra, we must live very close to each other, I am about 20 miles west of Boston too! This is the 3rd winter that Bluebirds have visited my suet log. I feed them a home-made peanut butter/suet mixture made with ingredients similar to what is listed on Sialis.org. I fill the log, and also break the mixture up into nuggets. The Blues prefer to perch at the tray to eat the nuggets, but they will perch AND cling to the log to eat the suet mixture too. I have never fed meal worms, so obviously the Bluebirds seem to be doing fine on the suet mixture. The little flock visit every day. They are often waiting for me first thing in the morning to fill the suet. Of course, many other types of birds love the suet mixture too. Except for the Finches and Pine Siskins, they eat the BOSS. I really enjoy watching the Blues, they are my favorite, and am very happy if this helps them make it through the winter!

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.