I am rationing my mealworms. The blues are finding bugs and do not come to the feeder as often. I feed them in the morning when the grass is wet and at night before bedtime. They also love wax worms and I have not heard about a shortage of them.

As for the crickets, you could put them in the freezer for a few minutes to make them sluggish and hopefully the blues will eat them before they thaw out. I'm not sure about the size, I have never fed crickets, but I would say small/medium.

The blues will not forget about the feeder. When they go away in the fall (there is plenty of food then) and I don't see them until winter...the worm feeder is the first place they check for food. I put suet in the feeder for them in the winter.

Karen

>> hopefully the blues will eat them before they thaw out

I was thinking about sticking the crickets in lard such that they would live a while, but can not escape. Gelatin would be another option.

I have been feeding crickets (about an inch long) to my Blues, only have a small amount of mealworms left from last season. I have also been giving them waxworms that I have been getting from Walmart. Sunshine thought they should have mealworms again in July to their customers, they are out of waxworms though and don't know when they will have more available. Ok now for what I do to the crickets, it is quite time consuming and not for the faint of heart. If you grab their back leg with a tweezers, they will pop right off. Not sure if this is a defense mechanism or not but they come off quite easily if you grab the upper part of the leg right. I have been giving the Blue (female only) around 15 or so crickets a day, she LOVES them and eats them first over anything else. I have been taking crickets and mealworms or waxworms out in the morning, noon and evening. They don't get an unlimited supply of course but she is right there as soon as she sees or hears me coming. The male Blue watches her but hasn't gone to the feeder yet that I have seen. Twice it seemed like she tried to get him to go in it though. I have no clue if this is the original male or not though he has been around daily now since Sunday. Not sure if he took a 4 day hiatus or if this is a different one but the wing waving is slacking off now.

Donna

Boy am I upset to hear that mealworms from Sunshine won't be available for awhile..I've been getting mine from them for quite some time!!! My second brood should fledge this weekend, and Mama and Daddy are getting every mealworm I offer! I might try the cricket thing, but YIKES! Popping off their back legs?????LOL...for me, there has to be a better way!!!

I still have some mealworms, so I guess like everyone else, I will have to begin rationing those little gems..who would have ever thought there would be a shortage of mealworms??!!!

Donna

>> crickets (about an inch long)

Wow. That's a lot bigger than I would have guessed a bluebird could swallow. Would it be wise to order something smaller, or are they eating them without any complications?

She gulps them crickets down no problem. I would think if they had their back legs they would be more of a problem though but since they don't she eats them fine. They range from 3/4 to an inch but that is couting the pointy thingy coming off their backends. I did get some just a tad smaller too but it is easier to disable the bigger ones. I would think though that once they are feeding little ones they would need them a bit smaller.

donna

I buy them at Wild Birds Unlimited. Was just there this past Friday and she had just gotten a big shipment in. She said she had heard about a shortage, but had experienced no problem getting them herself. As a matter of fact she showed me her huge container of them where she was feeding them before dividing them into containers for sale. I'm ready to buy more now. I sure hope she still has some.

I just got 2000 from WBU also.
I hope they continue to have them, I am just now getting mine to come to the feeder.
i am quite sure my Blues have NEVER had Human contact until me.
They look at me like I am nuts,
They dont come when I call.
If I walk out the door they are GONE!
But I think they are getting better.
Debbie
Tx

The bluebirds will survive just fine when natural foods are plentiful. And when mealworms are available again, I assure you if they found them once, they will find them again. When we go on vacation for a month, upon our return, they are back to begging again!
BlueBars

I have a question. Don't they have crickets? I mean, it's summer?

>> I have a question. Don't they have crickets? I mean, it's summer? >>

Well elly, they probably have lots of things to choose from since it is summer. I started feeding my female mainly due to noticing the male was mia for 4 days. Now that I have her trained he (or a new male) has returned. Actually I haven't seen a cricket yet this summer, nor have I heard them. We (in WI) have had just about every month this year so far below normal in temps. I rear Monarch butterflies every summer and normally by now I have lots of eggs and caterpillars. This year not a one yet and actually I have only seen three Monarch butterflies so far. They need the temps to be above 60 and in actuality we have only had temps constantly above 60 and 70 for about a week now, except for today of course it was only in the 50's. We are in a cool and very rainy period right now so I am glad I can provide some extra food for the female Blue. Another 1-2 inches of rain is expected tomorrow. I think we have gotten about 2 inches in this past week which is way less than southern Wi got but still we are very wet!

Donna

Elly, I had to laugh! It's true, they do have enough good stuff now that they don't really "need" any of the stuff we're serving. The one and only time I did the cricket thing (a royal pain) was when my male went missing the day after 5 babies hatched and my hope was to help the female out so that she would not have to travel as far away from the nest box (leaving them unprotected) for long periods. I "served" her wax worms, a huge hit, crickets and meal worms rolled in a calcium supplement. All at the suggestion of my songbird rehabber. I have never been so happy to see five babies fledge in my life! I do happen to have about 7,000 meal worms now but don't even put them out every day since they have so many insects they can get to.

Back to the crickets, they really are hard to deal with. If you put them in the freezer to stun them and leave them for a second too long, they die. I finally started cutting off their hind legs so they couldn't jump out of the feeder. Fun....NOT!

When I worked in avian rehab, we would release crickets into cages of newly-fledged birds that we had been hand-feeding for two weeks. It was so funny to watch them "see" the crickets for the first time. They would be gaping, gaping, begging, begging, and then they would shut up and crane their necks for good looks. The smartest ones would chase the crickets right off. Many would do a "Billy Buckner." Eventually they got with the program.

Many would do a "Billy Buckner." Help me out, what's that?

Watch the ball.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Mets Win it!

Billy Buckner...... I can't believe I remembered that! :D

Elly, that photo with all the different species is just adorable!

Billy's dad told him he could stay around, but only if he got a job.
So Billy decided to try his luck as a suet nugget salesman:

Kenn :)

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! Kenn That photo is PRICELESS! JUST PRICELESS!
Cathy

Don't even think about taking one of my suet nuggets.

Kenn, that picture is priceless! How very adorable. What a great shot!! Do your blues actually eat the suet nuggets even though you have mealworms out???

Donna

Ditto!!! He is guarding those nuggets like they were "gold"!!! So very precious!!

BTW, what brand of suet nuggets are they, and where do you get them? I'd love to offer them to my blues.

Thanks for sharing your incredible pics..

Donna

Thanks all,

Billy and all his siblings are sure precious and adorable to us too. :)

The nuggets are from Lowe's, and yes ALL our bluebirds do eat them, parents and fledglings alike. They favor the mealworms of course, but we are out of worms also now. Lately, our first-nest fledglings (Billy being the first of these) have been going to the nuggets even when there were worms in the next bowl. I think Missy and Mr.B have flapped them off the worm bowl often enuf, and they are somewhat hesitant to take the mealies that Mom & Dad reserve for the second brood.

Kenn

If anyone needs me to ship then meal worms let me know,
I can get them at out WBU here and would be glad to help out!