Moving a birdhouse that has baby bewick wrens in it???

[chicken toes]

I have a tiny birdhouse hanging above the chicken coop area in my backyard. Bewicks wrens have taken up residence and now there are babies cheep, cheep, cheeping!

I had baby birds fledge from a nest one other time in my backyard and the chickens ate them.

Can I gently move the birdhouse without causing the parents to abandon the babies?

The birdhouse is close to my fence. I would move it just to the other side of the fence...not far.

Any ideas? I don't know if I can handle seeing those jerky girls running around with baby bird bodies dangling from their beaks again.

Thanks,
Robin

 

[TwoCrows]

I can certainly understand your concern. Moving the nest box is a risk and you do take the chance of the parent birds abandoning the young. Can you move it a very short distance? If the parents can hear the chicks calling and the box is close to the original spot it MIGHT work? Birds are easily disturbed and can easily abandon their babies.

 

[chicken toes]

Just thought I'd update.

I ended up stringing a line from the tree the birdhouse was hanging from to the tree I wanted to move it to. Each day I moved the birdhouse a couple of feet along the line. I secured the loop hook on top of the birdhouse with clothes pins on each side to keep it from sliding along the line. By the end of the week, the birdhouse and sweet little wren family were securely hanging from the new tree. The parents fussed at me a bit, but were not too upset by the move. They never missed a beat with feeding and caring for the babies. Hopefully, they will fledge the nest and not get eaten by a prowling cat. There are dangers on both sides of the fence. I had to choose the lesser of two evils.

I can watch them from my dining room window now. I check on them all day long.

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP

Robin

 

[katsdar]

Just thought I'd update.

I ended up stringing a line from the tree the birdhouse was hanging from to the tree I wanted to move it to. Each day I moved the birdhouse a couple of feet along the line. I secured the loop hook on top of the birdhouse with clothes pins on each side to keep it from sliding along the line. By the end of the week, the birdhouse and sweet little wren family were securely hanging from the new tree. The parents fussed at me a bit, but were not too upset by the move. They never missed a beat with feeding and caring for the babies. Hopefully, they will fledge the nest and not get eaten by a prowling cat. There are dangers on both sides of the fence. I had to choose the lesser of two evils.

I can watch them from my dining room window now. I check on them all day long.

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP

Robin

Genius thanks for the update, I wouldn't have thought of that