We have barn swallows that come back every year .They made a home for themselves on the roof under our porch. . It was safe because no other bird would go on our porch. Very messy though & I took away our chairs& put a cardboard box for dropping All my friends thought we where nuts The first year we had them I had put out a decorative bird house ( not meant to be used as a bird house). It did have a flat roof & to our surprise 2 barn swallows build their mud nest ON TOP of the bird house .A chimney made a good roost at night .Its the stangest place I have heard of for nests. The first year they had 2 baby's then 2 years ago 4. They would sit on the railing & sometimes dive bomb us when we sat our there but finally they did get used to us Then last year ,no birds .I do know they fly a long way in winter so thought something happened to them so I tore down the nest & threw out the bird house .This year I put a smaller bird house up & sure enough a swallow found our porch ..I think it may have been one of the baby's from the previous years . It was so funny to watch this male trying to get a mate. For over a month he screamed out to every swallow that went by & even tried to build the bottom of the nest.. FInally he had luck Now these 2 are more scared of us so we try to stay off the porch.as much as possible. Also nest was small .They layed 2 eggs but one day I found a broken one on the ground .Anyone know if this is normal??? One baby was born & he hung around for a week after parents left but yesterday the parents came back overnight to the nest & he finally flew of with them .. WE WILL MISS THEM.. HOPE WE GET THEM NEXT YEAR Don't need bug spay our swallows are great hunters

"One thing I noticed this summer is that our barn swallows embarked early on their migration." They did the same thing this year, maybe left 3 weeks earlier. And Left a mess. They seemed to make bigger nests, used allot more mud and dropped so much more below the nests. I do have to admit I love at how graceful they are in flight and it is so fun to watch them learn how to fly from the balcony. The parents are so encouraging to the young birds when they are training them how to fly. Here is a link that might be useful: Alpiste Canary Bird Seed

You might check to see if you have an Audubon Society branch in the area. I'm sure they would advise you on what to do at this point. If there isn't an office in the area you could call a more distant Audubon office. In the meantime, might the babies eat mealworms?(the ones people buy for their feeders). Also, I took care of some baby birds for a friend once (don't know how that happened) and I was instructed to give them chopped up pieces of cooked scrambled egg. They liked it. Also, you could try giving them water with a medicine dropper if you are concerned about the heat in the barn. I don't know much about birds but it sounds like something has happened to the parents. I would think that their being gone for four days is a bad sign. From what I've heard birds are generally very good parents. You are so goodhearted to take this on. I hope you can get some sound advice that will relieve you about this and resolve the babies' situation. Good luck -

I've had SO many butterflies in my garden the summer! They appear to utterly adore my phlox and I've had a LOT of phlox in bloom. It's just now coming to an end. I love phlox - so pretty in a garden. The bees have had a field day on all my hosta blooms (I also have a LOT of hosta in both the front and back gardens!).