Supplemental feeding

[ToyinPA]

Graig:

Not yet. I have a B&B. I'm going to work on that this year & see if they'll take nesting materials first, then I'll try food later.

Altho I do find it fun flipping crickets & watching them catch them. I can even hear their beak snap shut on them as they catch them.

Toy in PA

[Craig Dyer]

Yeah, it is fun tossing & flipping. Tossing by hand is a little rough on the shoulder though. I was sore for days the last time I did it that way. Maybe it's time to go back to the spoon/flip. Younger landlords can probably get away with hand tossing

[ToyinPA]

I use the long spoons from the ice cream places. They work best.

Toy in PA

[shiner]

Thanks for all the replies. I am pretty sure that the martins were able to feed yesterday morning prior to the cold front. Since the front came through it has been windy and in the upper 40's and supposed to stay that way until Monday with patches of rain mixed in. I will probably try to see if they will take crickets tomorrow and then again on Sunday. I have had luck in the past flipping but not from my feeder tray(Except for the Mockingbirds). I usually keep oyster shell and pine straw in my elevated trays but may try some crickets Thanks again

[Louise Chambers]

This is a good opportunity to try feeding - glad you are thinking about methods. John Miller's suggestion to place food INSIDE compartments - in gourd tunnels, on porches, etc - is worth a try, too. That's how we fed our early arrival last year, and he made it through 5 or so days with temps in 20s/low 30s. Dead crickets inside tunnels, yum!

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

At my previous colony, I had occassion to supplemental feed my martins at least once during each season. I want to point out a couple of cautions while supplemental feeding.

In almost all cases, your martins are taking supplemental feeding, whether it be crickets, mealworms or scrambled eggs, because they are hungry. When flipping a cricket up in the air, you have all eyes watching the offering. This causes a problem because they are not observant to predators. One year, while flipping, I had a hawk fly within five feet of me and swoop up to the perches where my martins were waiting for the next offering. Fortunately, the hawk went for one of my decoys. While flipping, you need to be the eyes for you martins for any potential flying predator.

Another concern, I found out the hard way, was where to flip your cricket. If you flip the cricket over the housing, then you have your martins all heading for the cricket from different angles. One year, I had two martins collide in mid air. Fortunately they recovered and were not injured. I believe it was Linda Reynolds in Tennessee who had two martins collide while supplemental feeding and either one or both did not survive the collision. I have found it best to stand as close as you can directly under the housing and flip the cricket up high and away from the housing. This will allow the martins to chase the crickets from the same direction and cut down on the possiblility of mid air collisions.

Tim

[Guest]

Last year we put up a B&Breakfast fastened a martin decoy to one of the trays. We flipped crickets straight up over the B&B, the next day we put crickets in the four trays, just a few in each one, before we walked to the porch & turned around one had landed on the perching rods above the trays, she looked around a bit then right down in one of the trays she ate several crickets. By that afternoon there were 4 or five eating & then it was monkey see monkey do. Ours will eat eggs, but if pieces are to large they throw them out of trays, don't like them as well as crickets but will eat them if they are hungry enough. We order ours from Fluker farms also 1" long. Hope this info helps, sure beats standing in cold flipping crickets & eggs.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

cjbug, good post, sounds like you figured out the best way to train them.

[Guest]

Thanks Emil, you have great posts & very helpful to folks. We sure enjoy our birds don't we!

[parkerdes]

I have had an ASY male sitting on the porch of my modified MSS-12 for the past 2 days in the rain... I was worried about him but they all went out for several hours to feed when the temp was around 50 today. Also, when they flew, i found out that he was protecting a female inside from the other males! They were able to feed yesterday as well but tomorrow it is only going to be in the 40s unless the weather forecast changes!
I will watch them & may try flipping some of my mealworms that I feed the BBs. I've never tried to feed here because it has never been bad weather for more than a day or two. It is forecasted to be warmer on Sunday though!

[1 Ron Vasser]

Meal-worms are easier and cheaper to flip than crickets. The martins will take eggs if you prepare them correctly. Wipe a large non-stick skillet with a small amount of olive oil, beat 2 eggs well, pour into the pan, cook slow on one side, and then flip or turn like a big pancake. When done (not brown) slide the eggs onto a cutting board to cool. Slice in long strips 1/8" wide and then cut the strips to 3/4" lengths. They are easy to flip and the martins will clean up any that hit the ground. These pictures are from a long cold period when we had to feed for over a week.

I haven't lost any martins to hawks or collisions while feeding but would have lost all these birds without feeding. They are cold!


Cleaning up the eggs


Flipping to these martins

[Tim Stover]

as always ron awesome pictures good job