Some people have flung crickets or mealworms in the air for the TRES to catch and had success but I have no clue how as the adults would have to be right there watching. At 14 days old, I don't know if you would want to open the box. Not sure if there is anything you could do. I do have to tell you, we just went through five days of cool rainy weather. Got 3.94 inches of rain in the last five days. I had nine boxes of TRES ranging from day 9ish to day 15/16 as of last Sunday. As of yesterday five boxes of TRES have fledged in this crappy weather... which made a total of 29 TRES that fledged. I did however loose the youngest box of TRES, I found them all dead at about day 12, I think three of them died before that though but two had just died. I had another box that was probably at about day 12 when this started, they are peeking now so I am thinking all is fine there. Also have another box peeking which should fledge any day now. I am hoping yours being 14 days old are old enough to make it through, they are stronger at that age. It really seems to me that the mid age ones that are say day 6-10ish are the ones that fare the worst in bad weather.

How to PUMA landlords, supplemental feed? Aren't they just like TRES that eat on the wing??

Have to ad, we are jumping for joyu here as the sun is finally out again!

Good luck!
Donna

Hey Kendra, I do know a lot of PUMA landlords and they do a lot of supplemental feeding. Early in the season, when the birds first come in, it's often cold and wet. And yes, the PUMA's eat on the wing. The PUMA landlords I know of often offer crickets and scrambled eggs. Most of them have special feeding trays which are attached way up high to their rack poles. Some of them will put the crickets directly onto the gourd porches for the birds. You might try putting a couple of small crickets, mealworms, or some scrambled eggs onto the box and then stand there and watch closely from a distance to see if they take it. If they don't, I wouldn't leave it as it will draw in other birds to their box.~~A

I know the PUMA folks teach the Martins to eat crickets by flinging them. But they are colonial nesters, so all it takes is one to catch on (after a lot of wasted crickets) for the others to pick up on it. I'm thinking that with TRES it would not be so simple. I checked on the box this morning (without opening it because of their age), and the babies were all vying for a peek out the hole. I'm sure they're hungry, and the parents were not seen. Presumably the adults were out searching for food. Thanks for the information Donna on feeding and age. I guess I had assumed that they would need more food at this age, and therefore be more vulnerable to starvation. So it is a relief to know they may be strong enough to endure this. From what I can see of the young peeking, they still look quite active, which is good. Bandjzmom, if this weather continues and I see less activity at the hole, I will try your suggestion. I believe what you're saying is to put the food on the roof of the box? I suppose I could rig some kind of strainer thing to the roof or side of the box so it didn't immediately fill with water. It sure would be easier if TRES boxes had porches! I don't have any crickets, but I'm wondering what you think about me putting some of the darkling beetles out for food? I could use the standard PUMA scrambled egg recipe and put beetles and mealworms on top of it to attract them.