My strategy to keep bluebirds hanging out around the yard and by the house without ordering live mealworms so far seems to be working–by serving a mix of the suet nuggets, dried mealworms, and soaked raisins (generic brand raisins). They like this domed feeder on a shepherd’s hook underneath a big pine tree. Another open platform feeder has sunflower seeds added in for the other birds to enjoy, too. Raccoons are not accessing these setups below (yet). These are seen from the house windows, so I can keep watch!

I like to mix dried (or roasted) mealworms with soaked cut-up raisins and “bluebird nuggets”.

Suggestion on this feeder: It is rather lightweight. If you put freeze-dried mealworms in this, take it down in high winds as all the dried mealworms will fly out. This feeder will rock back and forth in winds. You also have the option to pole-mount this feeder which keeps it more stable. Since I have other stake-type feeders, I keep this as a hanging feeder. I like to move it around from tree to tree using a very large decorative tree-branch S-style hook designed for tree branches. If a raccoon knocks this down, more than likely, it cannot drag it off due to the size. Also the metal top keeps the glass cup of food dry and is somewhat difficult for a raccoon to pry it open. I hear crows quite a bit coming and going by our house, so I know they can’t get inside this.

Isn’t this adorable? Mr. Kinneer created this for his bluebirds. “Hi, honey pie! It sure is cold! I can’t find any more berries to eat, can you? Aren’t ya glad we have these yummy mealworms?”

The ice pretty much covered everything, including the stovepipe baffle and the Noel guard. Photo by K. Hale, Floyd County, VA.

Some winterizing material to plug up the nestbox vents.

I hope you find this helpful.