Well, the vertical grower is now horizontal, and six foot under, so to speak. But the intresting thig is that I pulled out all of the hair curler plugs with the young plants in them and put them in a pan. I have been giving them some water everyday now and they are all still doing pretty well for their pitiful situation. I feel so sorry for them that I am going to plant them in the next day or two in the new trough system I am building. Here is a link that might be useful: from vertical to horizontal trough, no Aluminum this time

Thanks guys, I followed your advice and removed the egg. I made a home-made hole reducer out of a piece of cardboard and taped it inside the box to the front of the box. It's been taped to the hole from all angles. Hoping it will hold up. It is a 1 1/4" or as close as I could get eyeballing it. The chickadees accepted it after a few minutes. Cardboard was the only thing I could think of that is flexible yet sturdy since I have gilbertson boxes. Crossing my fingers for no cowbird attacks. Never had a cowbird egg in 13 years of backyard birding, but now my 1st year at my new house and 1st nest of chickadees ever, I get one.

Thanks Lisa!! First thing I did this morning when I got up was to go to the window to see if they were at the box and they were! They were there for about an hour and a half when I had to take dd to school. They weren't there when I got back but showed back up again around 9:30, now I haven't seen them since. They had both been going in the box, once I saw them both go in the box together too which I figured was a good sign. I am not freaking out yet that they went somewhere else, well yes I am but I am not admitting it. LOL! I recall last year when we got a pair of Blues in mid June that they took forever to get settled. Last year I saw them on a Monday and then the female was MIA for the next five days however the male stayed around singing his heart out. Then the female showed back up and two days later started building a nest. So I am hoping they have chosen this box and right now are just relaxing a bit until they are ready to get down to business again. DOnna

I couldn't sleep last night worrying about the babies. I was so scared they would all be dead this morning. It looked as though the mom was feeding them yesterday but I really wasn't sure if they were getting much or not. This morning I got up early and got ready, took the dogs for our daily morning walk and then came back and took the guard off. I prayed so much yesterday and my heart was beating so hard as I opened the box and looked in. Thank God I saw four pairs of eyes looking back at me. So I have been watching for over an hour now, no peeking at all that I could see. Took Mom half an hour to go in and feed them but now she is feeding them and removing poop sacs but it still seems like they want them out for some reason. I have no clue why, she will get the food and sit for the longest time either in a tree near the box or on top of the sparrow spooker before going in and I can hear her chattering. Dad still hasn't done any feeding yet, for some reason he couldn't figure out the hole guard yesterday. So I am going to watch as much as I can today. If one goes out and cannot fly I may just try putting it in a tree and watching it, that way at least I know they will get fed. If I have to I can always put the guard back on for overnight. I am praying they all make it ok. Thanks everyone for your help. Donna