I've tried for three years to get our birds to eat eggs with no success. Finally, yesterday, they caught on! It's a good thing, they're still not finding much on their own and I've about depleted my mealworms. Has warmed up a little today but still raining off and on, mostly on! Sun peeked through for maybe a total of 10 minutes. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little better, sure hope so. Hope everyone who's experiencing this bad weather is doing ok with their birds.
Luck,
Frank
Finally--after about a bjillion mealworms!!!
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Mary Dawnsong
- Posts: 1685
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:17 pm
- Location: Michigan, Livingston County
Congratulations, Frank!
Life as a northern landlord is much less stressful when your birds are trained to eat egg.
If possible, get them eating from a platform feeder so they can "graze" whenever they want.
Martins naturally eat dozens of little meals a day.
When your method of supplemental feeding is tossing crickets or mealworms, they get full quickly and don't take in enough calories with each meal.
My colony eats scrambled eggs from a platform feeder and the birds stay very strong through long no-hunting spells.
I believe this is because they can eat at the pace they require, which is many mini-meals throughout the day.
Of course there's no research to prove this, but it is what I've observed over 6 seasons of supplemental feeding.
Cricket tossing is lots of fun, but platform feeding egg is best for the birds IMHO and the only practical method for a large colony.
Still not out of this weather, yet!
Good luck, Mary
Life as a northern landlord is much less stressful when your birds are trained to eat egg.
If possible, get them eating from a platform feeder so they can "graze" whenever they want.
Martins naturally eat dozens of little meals a day.
When your method of supplemental feeding is tossing crickets or mealworms, they get full quickly and don't take in enough calories with each meal.
My colony eats scrambled eggs from a platform feeder and the birds stay very strong through long no-hunting spells.
I believe this is because they can eat at the pace they require, which is many mini-meals throughout the day.
Of course there's no research to prove this, but it is what I've observed over 6 seasons of supplemental feeding.
Cricket tossing is lots of fun, but platform feeding egg is best for the birds IMHO and the only practical method for a large colony.
Still not out of this weather, yet!
Good luck, Mary
Click here to see my colony
"In Michigan every martin matters"
"In Michigan every martin matters"