Robins

[Chantal]

Thanks Catherine, I'll make a few phone calls

[Chantal]

Got some! What's more, from the place I buy my chicken food from, I had no idea they stocked them.

I have 100g of live ones and a big tub of dried. How much should I put out at any one time? I don't want them to be too fat to fly

[Primrose]

I must confess, I thought both male & female robins both had red breasts. I like to give our nearby nesting birds a helping hand when they've got babies to feed. I buy some cheap minced beef from the butcher and put it out for them in small pieces. The parents go wild for it. I don't know whether it's the substitute of a nice fat caterpiller but it's the first thing on the bird table to disappear at this time of year.

[Catherine]

Really glad you managed to get some. Dont suppose there are any instructions on the packet. Otherwise you could always google a question. We had to stop putting a bird table out because we got two very fat pidgeons landing and nothing else would come to it. Now we just have big bird feeders.

[Chantal]

I put a few dozen out in a tray and he went through them in about 10 minutes. I refilled a couple of times during the evening and he still has lots left for the weekend.

The babies seem huge now and look like they'll be out of there within the week. I hope

[Monika]

Don't be tempted to buy dried mealworms - I find that the birds don't really take to them, they must be live. Wigglywigglers sells them as do some pet shops and shops on nature reserves but, unfortunately, more and more of them are now stocking only the dried version.

[Chantal]

I've been feeding the robins live mealworms all weekend and it now seems that the babies are on the move. There was six there first thing this morning and a little later there was only three. Mr Robin is racing around feeding those in the nest and appeared to be taking mealworms into the raspberry canes too. I'm just hoping everything is OK as the second three were still in the nest this evening.

[Arnie]

Hi Chantal

You might want to try this for next year,

Mealworm culture

Prepare a large circular biscuit tin as follows: punch small holes in the lid for ventilation, place a layer of old hassian sacking in the bottom, and sprinkle fairly thickly with bran.
Put in a slice or two of bread and raw potato, followed by another two layers of sacking/bran/bread/potato, like a three decker sandwich. You can put a raw cabbage leaf on top if you like, Keep the tin at room temperature, not in hot sun.
Now introduce two or three live hundred mealworms into the prepared tin. After a few weeks the mealworms will turn into creamy pupae, then into little black beatles. The beetles will lay eggs which into mealworms, and so on. Crop as neccessary. Replace bread, potato and cabbage as neccssary. If you want to start new colonies, prepare another tin and transfer some bits of dry bread (these will carry beetle eggs) from the flourishing colony.

Best wishes

Kevin

[Monika]

Our first lot of robins fledged successfully and mother has now built a second nest in the same patch of ivy on the house wall but about three feet further up. Strangely, there is already a blackbird's nest only about 2 feet away but the two families (or couples I should say, at the moment) seemed to be getting on ok. The youngsters of the first blackbird nest are still being fed in the garden but the young robins have dispersed.
Both blue tit pairs are now sitting on their nests so everything is comparatively quiet at the moment. And I think the dunnocks and greenfinches are similarly sitting on eggs because I only see them occasionally. But today we also had two song thrushes in the garden (mother and child?) which must have bred nearby.
It's all go at the moment!
Oh, and the first holly blue butterfly and the first damselfly at the pond today!

[Monika]

Forgot to say: I tried the mealworm culture once, Kevin, but it all went horribly wrong and mouldy. Do you think it was too warm?

[Monika]

Our resident robins fledged a week ago (the second brood of the year) but the male is still feeding the speckled youngsters in the bushes in the garden and all today he came to the back door begging for currants. I put them on my flat hand and he readily alights on my fingers, picks up four or five currants at a time and takes them back to the youngsters. Meanwhile, about six blackbirds, parents and young, have collected to eat any currants on the ground! Their nest was in the ivy next to our dining room window, about 2 feet away from the robin's nest. Our blue tits left their box three days ago, but the willow warblers (their nest is right next to the back door) are still sitting on eggs.
We can't leave our back door open at any time because the robins and blackbirds wander in, in search of food!

[Chantal]

Sorry Kevin, missed your posting. I'm sorry, but I won't be going for the mealworm culture option, just having a bag of them made me heave. They're disgusting

I forgot to tell everyone, that five out of the six baby robins successfully moved on to greater big bird things. The sixth, sadly, was found dead in the nest.

Still, five was a pretty good haul I think.

[Geoff]

Found a Robin's nest today in clump of daffodils that had died down, luckily just before I strimmed them.

[Primrose]

Chantal - yes, do give the poor parent a helping hand. Fatty oats, sunflower seeds or suet pellets are all rapidly snatched from our bird table by parent robins who are feeding youngsters.

[Monika]

Primrose, I don't think the robins would take (and particularly feed their young with) sunflower seeds, the youngsters could choke on them. Suet, chopped very small, and, as you say, fatty rolled oats are fine as are small currants and grated cheese, but the ideal is live food like mealworms, small spiders, mini worms etc.