Holy cow people. It's not quantum physics, nor is it secret controversial knowledge..... Don't house bettas together! It's an accepted fact that they are aggressive with their own species. So why would you want to try to keep them together? What point does that serve? I don't doubt there are instances where people have "successfully" housed male/male & male/female bettas together. It is a widely accepted consensus that It generally never works! There's a case of a lioness caring for a baby gazelle, does that mean you'd let your pet in a lion enclosure? Since, hey, they could really hit it off...... In the wild, bettas have acres of rice paddies to hide and stay away from each other. In any size aquarium they are limited by their enclosed space with no escape. Trying to house bettas together serves no benefit to the fish. Attempting it shows you have no interest in the fishes happiness or well being. Experienced betta breeders will tell you, the only time males and females are kept together is for a very short period for breeding only. Then separated. It's very common for one or both to be injured during the process. You can keep a group of females together (usually odd numbers work best) but good luck. More times than not you'll have to deal with fighting since the females can be just as aggressive as the males.

For some reason bluebirds are intent on forgetting their responsibilities and this is a good reason their attempts to nest end in failure. I'm sure they would have gone extinct if it wasn't for us! Unusual indeed. Last season I had one parent (male I believe it was) feeding the hatch-lings, and the female NEVER went in to feed the babies. That's if my memory is serving me correctly. This is my 6th season, so it's getting hard to remember what exactly happened when. In one case here in Ohio, it was 70 degrees one evening - nice and warm - the babies were ALL gaping like crazy! The blues didn't seem to feed their young AT ALL. I was SO mad! This resulted in the ENTIRE clutch starving to death the next day when it was cold, blustery, cloudy, and only 50 degrees. The mom continued brooding but the young were doomed. I pulled the poor things out of the nest, buried them, and called it a day. Sounds like things are getting better. Unfortunately I suffer set-backs nearly every season. This time the 1st egg of the season disappeared. Could have had a full clutch by now! Sometimes it's just irritating seeing these birds become so careless, but so long as the parents stay alive, everything will be okay. I'm just not fortunate to have many successful attempts each season despite doing so many things right. Good luck from here on out! ~Tim~

About a month ago, Bluesman posted on the Bird watching forum about a type of entrance hole that allows Tree Swallows to enter, but not HOSP. He said - "There is a House Sparrow resistent entrance to keep them out of Tree Swallow houses but unfortunately Bluebirds cannot get in this. It works great for Tree Swallows though. I will see if I can post a picture of it. I first heard of it from a man in Canada named Bernie Nikolai. It is simply a 7\8 of an inch tall slot that is about two inches wide. It is in a thin plate around 1\8 inch thick. The House Sparrow cannot enter this but the Tree Swallows being more streamlined and slender bodied can flatten out and get right in. It works so good." The link below is the whole thread. Here is a link that might be useful: Male Purple Martin Using My Clinger Entrance Video!

I like cats, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't have them, or only have an indoor one. But, we have livestock and chickens, which means livestock and chicken feed, which means mice and rats. I tell you, if you don't have a at least one cat those varmints will take you out. We lost our last cat to old age, and within two weeks the rats were back tunneling under the barn. I couldn't believe that one cat kept them out that well. So, my mom found 2 little kittens under her building and I said I needed more cats and I took them. They are great mousers, but they also kill everything else. We feed them well, so they are not hungry. They are just hunters. So I'm just going to try and make my bluebird boxes better set up and hope for better luck next year.