Cleaning out nests in birdhouses

Hi Richard, we have a local group of folks that put out blue bird houses on all the local golf courses and they said it was mandatory to clean them out every spring.

My dad had a purple marten house and early each spring he would lower it down and clean out all the old nests.

All the old nest in a birdhouse need to be cleaned out, however I had a few nest built on my drain pipes coming down from the roof, and the birds actually use them year after year.

I would think birds would not use the same nest. Remove them

remove

every couple of years after all babies are gone, I climb the ladders, reach a finger in and hope for the best ! Im 79 ! Usually get a clump of mess, which is fine, and usually don't replace. Then early spring, begin putting out clumps of dryer-lint, all kinds of strands of stuff they can use for nesting, fabric, straw, old hats, grasses, hats, etc. They are creative ! They'll get their new nests built in no time next spring.

Clean it out as vermin might take over in there...........