Ok, that is good! I remember now. You can take it off after the blues are 7 days old but you can leave it up a bit longer if you would like. I would have it off by day 10 though. I have a wren guard on my Blues nest this year as they chose a box more in the wren territory (don't have a wren but they can show up at any time) and I wanted to be safe about it. I did it in steps...first just the front, then a short side, then a longer side...she accepted it no problem and laid six beautiful blue eggs... a first for me, never had six before, always 4 or 5. Glad that last egg hatched! Donna

very carefully (with a wide spatula or putty knife) remove the nest from the box, put it in a little paper bag of some sort (plastic will draw moisture which isn't good) and store it somewhere dry. sometime in the future, it may come in handy if an active nest is plagued with ants or mites, etc. as for preventing wren activity, it's pretty much a lost cause (at least in my own experience) once a wren has found the nest box. you may be able to move the box to a different location where you have not yet seen or heard wrens. if the blues nest again, immediately after the first egg is laid, slap a wren guard up and you might have a better chance of a successful nesting. i am holding my breath...i have 4 eggs due to hatch next wednesday, my female absolutely refuses to accept a wren guard and i'm hearing wrens all over the place. ugh!

OH man what to do??? I wouldn't plug the hole cause that for sure would make them go to the bluebird box. Adding a wren guard now to the blues box would be a bit risky unless you could really watch closely after up put it up to make sure mom and dad accepted it. A really easy gaurd is using a shoebox, cut one side off and attach to the roof so the other side is covering the hole, this way it has sides too. You could try it anway as long as you could watch closely, I think that is what I would do. Chances are though with the boxes that close the wren may have already seen the hole in the blues box. I sure hope it doesn't go over there. Like I said those nestlings aren't safe until day 7. Donna

How wonderful , I would definatly send this story and photos to Cornell http://www.nestwatch.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=577 , It would be a great story to put on the Cornell nestwatch site. May even want to send to Birds and Blooms mag, they love these stories and we are talking about an unusual nesting in flowers!! I think you get some kind of compensation if B&B uses your story. www.birdsandblooms.com keep us up dated!