Love your pictures. I love seeing the males feeding the females. It is so adorable.

I am assuming you mean live mealworms that you keep in the fridge right? In order to attract the blues to the mealworms you first need to watch and see where they normally perch and set a glass dish of the worms underneath that spot. The blues will see the movement and drop down to see if it is food. Once they know there is food in that dish you can then move it to a feeder and they should find it. I would not put the feeder real close to the nestbox as lots of other birds like mealworms and this may attract them. I have my mealworm feeder up on the deck. I normally feed mealworms and waxworms, they also love crickets but you need to remove the back leg of the cricket so it cannot jump out of the dish. Some people have luck with suet and nuggets but I haven't. Earlier this Spring my male blue was eating peanut chips though. A tip regarding the dried mealworms, they like them better if you rehydrate them first. Just put them in a cup of hot water, once the water cools, drain it pat them a bit with patper towel and put in a dish for them. I switch to the rehydrated ones later in September once live food is more scarce. Good luck! donna

Thanks Donna...I'm in eastern Maryland. This is my first year in bluebirds; I saw them on the bike trail which is just a few yards from my house, so I put up a house, and they arrived! At first HOSPs chased them away and made a nest. (I had NO idea how awful that was at the time!!) When the sparrow babies fledged I washed out the box and waited. The blues came back soon after that and had 1 clutch of 4 babies. I have no reason to think I won't be overrun with sparrows, except that it hasn't happened yet. I see loads of house finches, cardinals, goldfinches, titmice (is that right?)and chickadees mostly. I do see sparrows and wrens, but they don't linger. But if they chase my Blues away, I'll lose my mind. I did not make the suet---I bought non-melting insect-filled suet at the local wild bird store. It's pretty revolting! Is it possible to buy dead bugs in bulk?? I don't really get it...how are they preserved? Why doesn't suet get rancid? The whole thing is very distasteful to me, but there's little I won't do for my birds. My mealworm farm is proof of that! I also don't want to leave the house! After I harass my 5 year old to hurry up and get ready to go, I have gotten caught at the window staring at the birds... She hasn't called me on it yet, but I'm sure it's coming! Donna, I'm so sorry about your HOSPS. Maybe they'll be gone as fast as they arrived and the blues will be back! Ann

Your photos are amazing! Thanks for sharing them. I wish I could get some good ones, but I'm sure I would need a better camera. This is my 1st year having bluebirds. I had five in my yard this afternoon; some were feeding on the mealworm feeder and others sitting on the birdbath. I was so happy to see them all at once. I think they may have all been fledglings, but not sure. I live in southern WI and I thought they were long gone from the area. I have not been outside much this fall (family medical issues that I have been gone from home assisting with) and had not seen them. How long do they usually stay in this area?