please help cant find food

[chickadee]

I live in a small country town and can't not find anyplace to buy order crickets. I have five martins back and they hung around all day in gourds. Today was 50 out cloudy windy rainy and down right cold. Felt more like thirty. Tomorrow will be a break with sun and 58 out. But next 4 days after that calling for sixtys and rain on and off. Just to much rain here. My yard is flooded. I had heard on pmca people buying from farm place I called their and they said not taking new customers. For bugs I just don't get that unless theirs a shortage. And I don't know where else to call to order. No place close with the way gas is for me to drive to. Its going to be bad here. And these birds just don't deserve to die like this after all these long trips they have made back and fourth from brazil to here, they should not have to go out like this. If anyone can point me in right direction that would be great. I'm going to put them in the gourds for them.iv never did the feeding before but I'm positive they are going to need it if they already don't.

[Tim Stover]

i used mealworms and scrambled eggs they loved the eggs first time i ever fed hope this helps

[J Getting]

If you want crickets call 1-800-222-3563

[CraigMo.]

I just looked at your weather forecast and I think your birds will be fine and able to eat. You can get crickets from reptilefood.com It is good to train your bird to eat
Craig

[KathyF]

I ordered from reptilefood.com.

Reasonable prices for the crickets and overnight service prices.

Here's a tip - go ahead & get 2000 crickets - the shipping is the same for 2000 as it is for 1000.

[chickadee]

Tim, I have some meal worms left from the bb. How do I get them these and some eggs. They leave a lot but always sleep here. When it rains all day but in the sixtys they are gone. I have a bb feeder but its not close to their rack they never land on it. Should I put this stuff in their gourd for when they come in?

[CraigMo.]

Chicadee if they are gone all day then they are feeding. I am 99% sure your birds are fine. If they are not feeding then they would be home and weak and doing nothing, no singing nothing, just sitting there
Craig

[chickadee]

Tim, I have some meal worms left from the bb. How do I get them these and some eggs. They leave a lot but always sleep here. When it rains all day but in the sixtys they are gone. I have a bb feeder but its not close to their rack they never land on it. Should I put this stuff in their gourd for when they come in?

also weather says 60 70 percent rain next 4 days. And cloudy. Doesn't that make it hard to find bugs they don't fly in the rain? I'm confused to what the weather needs to be for them to be ok and find food. I have a big long creek across the street and 4 houses down they have 2 big ponds and deer creek state park is 6 miles away. So I'm around plenty of water for bugs. If they have ever found deer creek theirs a colony their?

[flyin-lowe]

The only time rain is a real issue is if it is raining from sun up to sun down. We rarely get that in this part of the country. Even if it rains for 4 of 5 hours straight once the rain stops there will be bugs coming out. I don't see any problems with the future forecast. If you are desperate you can order online. Also I am betting there is a bait shop somewhere near by. They will have crickets this time of year. They are more expensive there but they should have them.

[Tim Stover]

you can tell when there cold and hungry they just sit all drooped you can put it at the entrance some inside i flipped all i fed with a big plastic serving spoon it really slings them

[CraigMo.]

Bugs will fly when its cloudy. Bugs will fly between rain showers, Sometimes its to windy close to the earth but way up high where the pms hang out there are tons of bugs. Sometimes when its 45 degrees and there are no bugs available there are possible warm spots like right above a warm lake or where the sun is shinning on a side of a humans house creating a warm spot. I have seen my martins eat along the side of houses during cold weather. I also think your martins know where every martin colony is in your area IMO. It is hard to figure out when and when they are not eating because of weather. When they come home and land do they clean their beaks? That to me means they are cleaning the bugs off their beaks from eating. Again if they are gone all day to me that means they are most definetly feeding. There is only one other reason they would be gone for that long and that would be communial(I can't spell it) roosting. This is where they all try to get in one gourd and stay warm which its not that cold there. Maybe some other landlords can give you some advice.
Craig

[chickadee]

Thanks for all the fast replys. I am desperate. Because I want to get and have some on hand with this crazy weather. I try not to look to fare ahead on the forecast because I know it changes. Like last night they said rain would stop be 58 some sun and turn into a nice day. It did none of those things. They don't know from one day to the next. I do have a marys bait shop down by the deer creek. They said to cold out they have no crickets yet. I found a petland on line want 25 bucks for 500. I will price all other places people have told me in hopes just to find some I won't need much with few birds. And my site is small and every year they go off and on here untill nest time. 2 sleep here every night. But I don't know if they are sitting around at another site with other birds company not eating. It is to hard to tell so want to have something for when they are here just in case.but I hope everyone is right about the weather it has not rained and not stopped but no sun coming out.

[Sharon Wangen, MN]

I just got my shipment today from reptilefoods.com I ordered 5,000 they shipped overnight I got 1,000 per box. I've never tried it before. the weather here in southern MN has been just horrid. I put all the boxes in the freezer for about a half hour until they quit wiggling. yuk then I brought one box out side. I flushed the martins out of the house and waited for them to settle back. I sat in my lawn chair and flinged them one at a time with a plastic spoon right at them for about an hour and then a female ate one!!!!
Once she figured it out she started trying to catch them. And then so did the rest. It was sooo coool ! whenever I flung them straight up then they could see them the best and they'd fly off the wire and try to catch them.
I flung the whole box of a 1,000. until it got dark. I started at 630p You should have heard them singing so happy when they settled into there house for the night.

[Sharon Wangen, MN]

I forgot to mention the 5,000 that i ordered was $87 total with the shipping.
They came from tennessee