Dear Members.

My friends Mikki wrote this to me so I am passing along to the good members of this fourm.

I appreciate your help

"Several years ago I won this handmade bluebird house in a raffle in Pennsylvania when I lived there. Each year, a handmade bluebird house was offered as a prize (just to show that this man made many of them and they are made to the bluebird house specifications and HE has had lots of bluebirds in his own houses) I was thrilled to finally win one. It turned out that the year we won it was when we had decided to put our house on the market. Therefore, the house went into the basement and was there until we moved when it was put in a storage facility. It remained there for a year and a half until we found our current home. We bought the home in late summer, but I put it out (about 10 feet from any trees and facing west) thinking to weather it and have it ready for the bluebirds the following spring. The following spring came and ----nothing! Curiously, not even wrens or sparrows made it their nest! My husband and I discussed this and we thought, maybe it's too close to our house? (about 50 feet from house) so I moved it far into the yard, this time facing it south, further from trees, but about 10 feet from a shrub, thinking that the shrub would provide a landing for the baby birds.

We saw bluebirds (bird?) land on the house. Several times. We thought, Great! They like it! But, they poke their head into the hole and then fly off!!

Why, I wonder. Are they sensitive to odors? Could all that time being in a basement and then in storage have affected the scent? But, you would think that the two years it has been out in the elements would have destroyed any previous scent, wouldn't you?

Anyway, it's a mystery. Any suggestions?