Found a youngster on the ground at lunchtime

[johncanfield]

I was going to treat all of the gourds with Sevin today and when I walked up to my pole I found about a 20-something day old chick on the ground. It seemed okay so I lowered the gourds and put it in a gourd on that side that I knew had chicks. It might be the correct gourd or not (probably not since so many have chicks.) Glad I found it before the barn cat or dogs did, I'll do check every couple of hours in case there's another escapee.

[johncanfield]

And found escapee #2 about five minutes ago on the ground. This time I checked my logbook to put the chick in a gourd with only 3 chicks.

[Spiderman]

That's one of the primary reasons we do nest checks every 7 days or so. To identify where a Fledgling is missing so he goes back in the correct Gourd.

He will keep jumping until you get the correct Gourd or starves. Parents aren't going to feed a baby at that age that isn't theirs. I don't mean to sound rude but it's true.

The other reason is to see if mites are living in the gourds.

Often times when they will fledge in a few days they walk on the porch and exercise their wings. While doing so it is easy for them to be bumped off by their parents or an SY flying by.

[johncanfield]

I keep checking for escapees but haven't had any since the first two and my second mite treatment was successful All of the chicks should fledge in the next week or so. I'm quite pleased with my success this season and I've learned a bunch about being a good landlord from you experienced folks here.