Capricious environments often present wild animals with challenges that coincide or occur in sequence. Conceptual models of the stress response predict that one threat may prime or dampen the response to another. Although this has been widely shown for glucocorticoid responses, much less is known about the effects of previous challenges on energy mobilization. Food limitation may have particularly important priming effects, by altering the ability to mobilize energy when faced with a subsequent challenge. We tested the prediction that challenging weather conditions, which reduce food availability, alter the energetic response to a subsequent acute challenge (capture and restraint). Using a three-year dataset from female tree swallows measured during three substages of breeding, we asked if weather (temperature, wind speed, and precipitation) over 3- or 72-hour timescales predicted baseline and post-restraint glucose levels. Contrary to our predictions, weather conditions did not affect baseline glucose. However, as predicted, birds that had experienced lower temperatures over the preceding 72 hours mounted higher glucose stress responses. We also saw some support for an effect of rainfall on stress-induced glucose: around the time of hatching, birds that experienced more rainfall over the preceding 72 hours mounted lower responses. Overall, we find support in a wild animal for the idea that the glucose stress response may be primed or dampened by exposure to prior challenges.