I had one ASY pair (1m, 1f) show up last night at my place, and I swore I'd never go this far, but I found myself flinging crickets at them . I picked up 5 dozen at a local pet store today. I put about a dozen on the porch of the house they were in but they're out and about now and I don't think they found them. They ignored the 2 I flipped at them so I figure they must not be too bad off. It's 41deg here now, and going downhill from there. I don't expect it to see 50 for 4 days. Maybe if they hang around I can keep them from prematurely expiring....maybe. How many 3/4" crickets would they need a day?
Ian
Last edited by Guest on Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm worried about the five martins that have been on the gourd rack lately. I did put the gourds up Friday, but with the weather forecast I really hope they've moved down into Tennessee or Alabama for a week or so. I've only seen one of them today. -- John
It's times like this that I'm glad my site does not have any PMs yet. Looks like we are in for some very cold weather for this time of year.
Haywire,
Just what I would think here, about 10 per adult bird if you can get them to take them. If you can get them to take them in the air, feed them till they don't want any more. With so few a birds, you can give us an idea on how many if you are successful in getting them to eat.
Best of luck to everyone with early arrivals and this cold period.
I haven't seen my martin since saturday night. Our weather doesn't even look good til Sunday. I am expecting the worse when I check my houses. I was gonna look tonight but its raining and gonna change to snow. If he is alive I think it would be better not to check in case I would scare him out and then he would get wet. There is really no chance for him to survive unless the weather changes. The weather people usually are pretty close on calling the forecast. Well I just saw my martin sitting on my house at 5:15pm and he flew off. I will probably try to put some food on all the porches tomorrow morning if it is not snowing-raining. Good Luck on your birds
Craig, if your going to feed them you might just as well put the food inside the compartment. He will find it.
Bob Buskas, Alberta, Canada (The Northern Sky's Colony) Supplimental feeding is the key during bad weather, but you must train them to feed ahead of time.
Its snowing here in Tonkawa Oklahoma its been cold and rainy for several days took my gourds down and put a couple 60 watt bulbs in my 2 houses hoping the upper layer will get some heat im trying to save 2 males and a buddy of mine has 11 birds and hes doing the same. Last night our town lost gas service so we were pretty cold! got it back on a little bit ago. I hope putting bulbs in the houses is something someone else has had to do and we're not the first to do this going to pet store in the mornning to get some crickets wish me luck im praying for a heat wave!!
I suppose I should feel lucky too. My martins are almost always 3 long, horrible weeks later than everybody elses (guess they procrastinate like I do), but then again, mine aren't subjected to this extra cold weather either. Also I'm waiting for another pole this time with a gourd rack... my back pole collapsed and even Superman would pull a muscle trying to separate them, so I had to trash 2 sections.. this time I'm gonna fire up the drill and take care of that problem once and for all
. I picked up 5 dozen at a local pet store today. I put about a dozen on the porch of the house they were in but they're out and about now and I don't think they found them. They ignored the 2 I flipped at them so I figure they must not be too bad off. It's 41deg here now, and going downhill from there. I don't expect it to see 50 for 4 days. Maybe if they hang around I can keep them from prematurely expiring....maybe. How many 3/4" crickets would they need a day?