You know, it was not expensive in money OR time to do this, it was pretty darned simple. :) DH got a PS EyeToy color camera for $5.00 at Gamestop, and YahooLive is the host for the cam, sound and chat, at no cost to us. My husband had the know-how to get things going, but you can find out online and it isn't difficult or complicated. The number of people viewing the cam and talking in chat crashes my husband's computer sometimes, but we just restart things and everything's fine. We wanted to hatch chicks anyway, so thought we'd share the experience. The cam just pointed through the viewing panes in the lid of the incubator, now we set it inside the brooder box. Baby chicks DO have a wonderful effect on all who gaze upon them, it's like Valium for your eyes. *L* And yeah, it is VERY remarkable that Chicken Sister has babies this late in life--but then, both of the boys LOVE her to distraction, you should have seen them run over and burble over her when we brought her back from the vet after her egg-binding adventure. What a couple of love-struck chuckleheads. :) It was very sweet, they missed her so! We'll be hatching again the weekend of June 21st, and will resume chickam then, if anyone wants to watch. We will have our incubators issues solved before we start more eggs. Velvet ~:>

LOL hideglue! Last year I had a pair that I had been giving waxworms along with the mealworms. They only ended up with one baby too, out of four eggs. One had a deformed leg and died, the other two died due to a bad blowfly infestation in which I had to do a nest change for the remaining baby. Anyway with just that one mouth to feed the Blues stopped eating any mealworms and would only come for the waxworms, if there were no waxworms they would find their own food. Talk about being picky. This years pair since I had been giving them crickets/mealworms and waxworms (because I thought I would have a lone female) is a little less picky. They of course will eat the crickets or waxworms first but will slowly eat the mealworms too. I only give them so many crickets or waxworms a day though. Since the babies hatched though they are busy and don't always come for the free food, I think once the babies are bigger they will though. I am having a hard time with them coming to the deck too, so far they will only come to about 20 feet of it. I am going to try again tomorrow to put the feeder on the deck. I figure as the babies grow they will get more demanding and maybe the mom/dad will give in and come all the way up to the deck for the free food. LOL! Donna

I enjoyed reading this tonight after a very busy weekend and want to thank you so much for sharing this. Your birding experiences are so interesting. I loved seeing the little bluebird finally make the leap in the movie and all of your photos are so incredible. Poor little mama bluebird with the hurt leg. I sure hope it heals correctly enough for her to get use from it. She is very unique in appearance and I wonder if any of her babies will look like her. Please keep us posted if you see any resemblance. The high winds have been so hard on our little birds this year.

What mlkbskt said is correct. A nestbox should never be mounted on a fence/tree or post of any kind unless it can be baffled. Conduit works best for mounting nestboxes on and stovepipe baffles are cheap and easy to put up. Nestboxes should also be put up at least 15 feet away from any trees. With just one egg gone I would think either House wren (are they in Texas?) or House Sparrow. The House Sparrow will usually just go in and smash the eggs and or kill babies and adults that may be in the box, however it could have gotten interrupted by the Bluebirds too. That is why a sparrow spooker is very important to put up after the first egg is laid. Sparrow spookers are easily accepted by Bluebirds. Wren guards are a little trickier though but do help if wrens are in the area. It is best to put them up during egg laying though to make sure they are accepted. The whiter end and ring on the egg is normal, I have seen it before too. A mockingbird would not be able to get into the nestbox so it would not have taken the egg. Is the hole on your nestbox the 1 1/2 inches that is standard for the Bluebird nestboxes? It shouldn't be larger to prevent Starlings or Red Bellied Woodpeckers from reaching in and grabbing eggs or babies. As far as the heat, I know it can kill nestlings if it gets too hot but not sure about affecting hatching, normally the Momma just wouldn't need to incubate as much. Day 15 is not out of the norm, I have heard of eggs going up to 20 days and still hatching. So the eggs can still be good, but if something got one chances are it could come back and get the rest. Raccoons love to reach into nestboxes and pull out babies/eggs and incubating female but they usually do it at night so the momma would be gone/eaten and probably all the eggs if it were a raccoon. Raccoons are everywhere even if you don't see them, they are there! I would keep a close eye on the Blues and see what they are doing. Are they still going to the box or not? Usually they will not give up on the nest if an egg is taken like that, so the nesting should still be ok and also they can sit on eggs a long time before they give up on them. Good luck, hopefully you can get this nestbox safe and can have a successful second nesting. Don't let the first nesting fool you since it was successful, an improperly mounted nestbox is a failure just waiting to happen. Read up at sialis like you said you were, there is tons of great info on there! Donna