Are you keeping the birds nests? (1 Viewer)

If you got birds nestin in your nestbox this year are you keeping the remaining nest or throwing it out? Im leaving The Great Tit nest in my nestbox alone cus its way to neat to throw it out in some books :news: they say you can leave it as it may get used again or throw it away if you wish so what are you doing with yours? It was great watching them practully looked at my window all day:-O :bounce: :t:

Hi Euan,

Generally it is a good idea to clean them out, as it gets rid of all the lice and fleas that could otherwise cause problems for the birds next spring.

After taking it out, perhaps put in a little fresh dried grass & moss for insulation for any birds that want to roost in the box over the winter.

Michael

Euan - if you go to our website and look at the entry for Jan 1 this year, you will see a copy of the advice published by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust on this topic.

We don't have any birds roosting in either box so far, but a bird is coming into Box 1 quite regualarly.

I always clean the nest boxes out in the Autumn. You'd be surprised at the thousands of small flies that congregate in the nesting material. Sometimes I find dead chicks and unhatched eggs woven into the old nesting material. I scald the box, spray in disinfectant and rinse it out again before letitng to dry. I don't then bother with any nesting material.

We have had a Great Tit roosting in our camera monitored box for about the last month. It comes in just before dusk and then leaves just afer the crack of dawn. On dull wet mornings it stays in the box an extra 30 mins or so.

I woudl agree that you should clean out bird boxes every year - it is unlikely that the birds will use the same nest, they are more likely to build a new one on top.

Best thing to do is to remove the old nest and then clean the box to get rid on any little nasties that are in there. Best way to do this is to pour boiling water in and wash it out with that. Obviously you need to get your box back up as soon as it's dried out so that it can be used for roosting.