Well, you could always use the very tacky but effective way of anchoring things in a waveless body of water- fill up old (well-cleaned) clorox bottles with concrete, let them cure, and securely tie boating rope to the handles. Sink the bottles and float the box from the rope. Ugly but that's how I've seen it done with rowboats, etc. in shallow water. Cinder blocks work equally well. Sorry, not the most aesthetically pleasing option, but it works.

Unless it's a big nest, or you see more than one nest in the box, I'd suspect plain old House Mouse rather than a Deermouse. Deermice are country mice, Housemice are urban/suburban. Deermice live in groups of up to 10, so where there is one nest, you will often find another. Cold weather means tiny little herds of deermice are trying to move in where it's warm, which is why I have two cats living in the kitchen/back porch. One is a great mouser, the other is a great goof off, but they keep my kitchen rodent free. Otherwise, if I didn't have the cats, I would use glue traps, but only because: (tender hearted soul that I am) 1) This is a farm, so I have plenty of open land to let them go. 2) I know how to get almost any animal off a glue trap without harming it. (other than an insect -sorry, but I've not had much luck saving spiders or crickets) The secret is cooking oil. Corn oil, cheap-o vegetable oil, if you're feeling really bad about making the vermin suffer, you could use extra virgin olive oil, but really, it doesn't matter. Just slide the glue trap and the struggling varmint onto a cookie sheet or sturdy piece of cardboard to support it while you carry it outside. (In our case, that would be outside and at least a 1/4 mile away from the house, but just outside works if you're in town) When you get to the release site, just set the cookie sheet/cardboard down, and pour corn oil over the rodent. Oil disolves the glue in less than a minute, and your greasy little varmint will have pulled itself off the trap and will be staggering away into the grass. The rat/mouse/chipmunk/baby squirrel will take care of cleaning itself, which is why you use edible oil. Lizards, frogs and toads don't clean themselves, but it won't hurt them either. If you catch a bird, you'll have to carefully wash the oil out of it's feathers with dish soap, like they do for seabirds caught in an oil slick. This is also what I'd suggest you do if you catch a litter of kittens. (which happened to one of my neighbors, who called me in a panic about it)

Other aids to deter pole climbers: 1. Install a 4 inch diameter or larger plastic tubing (pipe) over the pole from the ground to under the baffle. A 5 inch tube is better, but 4 inch is the largest I can find in the general purpose plumbing stock at regular consumer's stores. Racoons find it difficult to grip the larger pipe especially if it is smooth. By experience, I found that racoons can climb a 3 inch and smaller plastic pipe. 2. Use conventional automotive wax to wax and buff the pole up to the baffle. After some time, even a plastic pipe will get dirty and begin to pick up a nicks from claw marks. Some of its slipperness can be renewed with a good coat of wax. Re-apply as needed. 3. Coat the pole below the baffle with gooey, or slippery non-drying subsance. Old cranckcase oil or new oil works temporarily against squirrels. One time, I coated a pole with new motor oil. The next squirrel that tried it got up about 2 feet and slid back down the pole. He went away shaking his body in disgust trying to rid his fur of oil. However, this may not be the preferred naterial becasue a squirrel could be sickened from liking the oil from his fur. An oil coat works for only a couple of days because it will run off the pole and weathering will begin to remove the oil and this oil is going into the soil. Try applying "tree guard" from a garden center. This is a gooey benign substance normally applied to fruit tree trunks to discourage chipmunks and other creepy-crawlers from ascending the tree trunk. It should work the same on a feeder or bird house pole. If the length of treated section is long enough, it may discourge snakes.

So sorry about the loss! Definitely remove the broken egg & make sure you don't have ants in the nest (clean up any mess best you can). Sialis.org tells you exactly what you can use to safely treat ants (think it's DE?). Whether for now or later, you can also put something on the pole to make it slippery (i.e.- Vaseline, garage door track grease) to keep ants from climbing pole. I do that with my pole for Hummingbird feeder since ants are attracted to sweet nectar. If there are ants in nest, it could've scared mom away, but still may be worth treating. Just don't know situation? If ants aren't in nest box, keep the other egg in there until you know 100% for sure that it has been abandoned. Mom could still be incubating. Put a blade of grass in entrance & see if it ends up being moved. You could also dot the egg with a marker to see if it gets turned by Mama bb while you're not looking. The absolute last thing you could do is candle the egg. According to where you are, it's getting late for nesting in some areas. That's where you have to consider the heat. The Sialis site also tells about appropriate temps for nesting & how to insulate boxes if necessary. Also, in addition to snake netting, I'd get a proper pole with baffle on it (you may already have this). You may hear from another lady that frequents this site that has had snake experience where she set up a killer Krueger trap on her pole. Lastly, don't give up! If it doesn't work out this season, they know where you are- would think they would return again next year. Best of luck! Nicole