Plug Up the Vent Holes!

[Terry Suchma]

Plug Up the Vent Holes!

I am getting questions concerning this cold spell we are having and yet to have a couple more nights with lows near freezing. One person thought the female only brooded 4 or 5 days and the babies would die because his had been brooded 5 days. My experience is they can brood from 5 to 7 days and by that time they have feathers.

If the female has to leave the nest too long to find food, brooding babies can be put in danger of the cold. Closing the vents can help keep the box warmer and the mother's body produces some warmth in the box also. Many of the nests are built with a deeper cup on the first cycle and the warmth of the babies bodies helps too.

I was watching my nest cam this morning and Ms. Bluebird Possessed still has not laid an egg on the seventh day of nest completion. The sound on this little cam is fantastic! The wind was howling and the grasses on the top of the nest were moving pretty much. I decided I would go out there and put foam back in the vents that I had removed and see what happened. My husband put two half inch vent holes on each side up under the roof. I stuffed foam rubber in them and when I viewed the cam again, all the grasses had stopped moving and the howling of the wind wasn't so loud, but the wind was blowing like crazy everywhere.

That tells me that plugging up the vent holes when the weather is so cold and windy will give the eggs, babies and mama much protection. It stops the cross ventilation. On the other side of the coin, we need this cross ventilation badly on the second and third (sometimes fourth) cycles in the south.

When I clean out the boxes at the end of nesting season, I put foam rubber in the vent holes, foil on the bottom with a little grass on top of it. I clean the foil and grass out usually in late January or early February (when I feel they are going to start building), but I leave the foam rubber in for the first nesting cycle of that season. This one in the backyard, I had removed the foam not knowing we were going to have this late cold spell. (It is predicted low 30's and my son has corn 6 inches tall!) I have not removed any of the foam in my other boxes and am I glad!


Evelyn Cooper
Delhi, LA