Geese behave much differently than chickens. First, you'll never be able to sneak up on her at night. They can see almost as well as during the day. Second, if by some chance you are able to get close to her, she'll still know that you're there. It will cause all sorts of commotion, scattering both "her" hatched babies and those that you've saved. You'll take the chance that they'll all get lost or chilled. Geese are extremely intelligent, and have social behaviors that are so much more advanced than that of any chicken flock. Probably one of two things happened with this clutch. Either she is an inexperienced mother, and her instincts were satisfied by hatching the first few, even though more were coming, or, two, there were other females who had access to her nest, and they layed after she began setting, so there are actually multiple eggs with varying hatch dates. I have had good luck both ways, introducing newly hatched goslings to a mother even several days after her true brood had hatched, or also introducing young started birds to the group when they were several weeks old. I've even had my flock take in newly hatched babies when there was no female setting. I would introduce them all to the entire flock first thing in the morning when you have a few hours to watch closely that everything is going OK. In most cases it will take only a minute or two before you know if they'll accept or reject them. I've never had well adjusted (non pet) males cause any problems with babies in my flock. The only time that there were issues was when I had too many males, and squabbles between the males who were in the group and those who were kept out have sometimes inadvertently caused problems with young chicks that got caught up in the fighting. Even that has usually worked itself out in a few minutes. All this happens in a pen of almost 3/4 an acre, and I'm sure that plenty of space is a factor in allowing everything to work itself out.

mlkbskt...where are you located? I am in WI and we normally get two nestings per season. First one is just finishing up right now, babies are on day 17 today. If your pair are checking out the box again there is a very good chance they are planning on nesting again. Twice I had a pair that only nested once and they never checked boxes out but the pairs that were planning on nesting again have always checked the other available boxes. Mine sometimes take the same box and sometimes a different box, just depends on what is available and if their first nesting was successful or not. I normally see fledglings about 7-10 days after they fledge, that is about the time frame when they start following the adults more and will follow them to the feeder. Is this your first year with Bluebirds or have you had them before? Glad to see in your other post that you didn't open the nestbox to check on your Baby Blues, I knew you knew about sialis and read it but the wording made it sound like you had opened it. I almost opened the box to check the baby Blues on Saturday thinking it was day 13 but I looked at my notes again and realized it was day 14 so my last check had been on Friday and I wasn't going to risk looking again. Probably would have been ok though, they seemed a bit smaller than normal to me and here we are on day 17 and I haven't seen any peeking yet, mom and dad still going in the box at feeding time too. Maybe with six mouths to feed, they just need a little more time in there, hopefully they stay in there as long as they need to. I hate having non flyers at fledging time! I have 10 nestboxes on our property and 5 at a park near us. Had 46 TRES and 6 Chickadees fledge so far this season from them. Six baby Blues should be going any day now and just yesterday I found a new Bluebird nest being built in a box on our back property line. So I should have two second nestings of Blues...I know the pair nesting now will nest again as they have been checking out the houses and for the first time in the past six years I got the same female back that I had last year. Never had that happen before as they don't overwinter here. The reason I know this is because she isn't the normal blue of the bluebirds, she is more of a skyblue in color, plus I didn't have to train her to come to the mealworm feeder like I have always had to do before.

Remember, raccoons are nocturnal. Unless you stay up all night and watch, you will never know. And they reside in urban, suburban, and city environments. They love to eat eggs and little birds, even adult birds if they can catch them (like reaching into a nestbox). And believe me, there is nothing worse than going out to check on the nest, and finding a wing here, a leg over there, and feathers everywhere, especially knowing you could have prevented it. And if a raccoon can get them, so can cats. You CAN move the nestbox, carefully, to a safer setup. I have not had to do that, as my setup is already the best I can make it, but others have. Hopefully they will chime in. BlueBars

It would surprise me if yours are bluebirds and they all fledged without the parents being there. Bluebirds are very much into fledging. Mine are about to go today and the parents obviously know it. They have been to the nestbox every 5 minutes or so and both of them are perched in a tree where they have an unrestricted view. They buzz any bird or squirrel that comes within 25 feet of the nestbox. This is day 17 for two of them and day 16 for the other three. I have seen some peeking so I expect the two older ones are ready to get out of that hot, crowded box. I wonder if some or all of the 16 day olds will go too, or if they will sit it out overnight and go in the morning. I am ready, either way. You're welcome on the pictures. I actually can document every day of the metamorphosis, except for the seven days or so right after they fledge, (and there is no perceivable color change during that time period anyway). And of course it's still approximate from a scientific point of view, since the birds do develop at different rates and my pictures are of juveniles from several different clutches. It's virtually impossible to track a single fledge all the way if it is flying free. Papa usually runs the juveniles off before the next batch fledges but fortunately, on several occasions (usually the last nesting of the year)he hasn't. Dave