Last Fall I switched from live mealworms to dried mealworms that I rehydrated by soaking them in water. The Bluebirds ate these for a whole month before they left. Way way cheaper than live ones. I am going to try that this Summer too after I train them with live ones, not sure if the rehydrated ones will go over as well during the nesting season or not though but we will see. I have never had any luck with suet or bluebird nuggets and Bluebirds even when I mixed them with live mealworms and even when that is all they had in the mealworm feeder, they just won't touch the stuff around here. Donna

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

I switch over to them in the Fall and the Blues eat them just fine. You need to rehydrate them though or they won't eat them. I just put some in a container, fill with hot water and by the time it cools they are ready to drain and put in a dish for them to eat. I usually make the switch sometime in September. This Spring I had the same female Blue come back (which is unusual as they don't overwinter here in WI) and I quickly got the dried worms in some water and once they were ready I put them out and she came and ate. They also work great during a prolonged wet period when the bugs aren't out as much. We had a 5 day cool/rainy stretch in June and I would put a dish of rehydrated dried worms along with the dish of live worms in the feeder. When the live ones were gone, they would eat the rehyrdated ones. I have a store here in town that sells the rehydrated worms for 6.99 for 5,000.....so much cheaper than the live worms!! I love it in the Fall when I can switch over to them. Donna