That is so exciting! I love those little birds. There is a pair in the yard fairly often, they must be nesting around here somewhere. I've watched them in the crabapples in back, flitting about the blooms eating something, probably some sort of caterpillar.

I hope the wrens stay away and that yours have lots of little fledglings!

How exciting!

We had Carolina Chickadees nesting in a bluebird box by the barn, but I don't even look that way to avoid attracting the attention of predators, so don't know how it's going.

It sounds like you're in for some fun. The Chickadees are such sweet little birds. Did you get a count of how many eggs they have? Even their eggs are pretty.

Actually, I need to check with you-all about something - will hearing the babies be the way to know the babies have successfully hatched? Am I supposed to check on them? I would rather not, only because the nestbox has a front-opening door which would really expose the babies, and I don't want one of them to fall out or anything. And it has been fairly cold here lately (a frost not too far north of here last night), best to keep what heat they have, in the nestbox.

So I am assuming Nature has brought these chickadees this far, they can handle the rest without me too. Right?

Monitoring is a very important part of hosting cavity nesters. There could be parasites like mites, ants or blowflies. There could be Carpenter Bees or Yellow Jackets that drive the adults away. Wet nests, broken eggs or even one baby that dies can kill the other babies. All of these things can be fixed only if you are aware of the problems.
sialis.org is a great resource for all the info you will ever need.
Cathy

Here is a link that might be useful: sialis

In regard to nestbox monitoring - I agree that I should be keeping an eye on activity with the box, the parents' coming and going, and of course any interested house wrens/sparrows or other predators (which I have, having evicted the resident house wren from one nestbox and putting a wren guard on the chickadees' house.) I know I should be acting as a protector of the nestbox from outside elements - predators, bad weather, problem insects.
Also I have made sure there is a bird bath nearby for fresh water and a small feeder with seed nearby as well, for mom and dad chickadee. And as their box overlooks a vegetable garden there will be plenty of worms and bugs to share with their little family.

As far as the babies once they have hatched, I think they and their parents should be left alone, for nature to take its course, and that in most cases the outcome will be good. I know this does not go along totally with the sialis advice, but I truly believe that animals' instincts guide them pretty well. Obviously if there were a crisis about a species' survival other measures would be taken, but in regular circumstances I would leave the box alone.

I am really sad to report that a house wren attacked (probably killed) the very, very young chickadee babies and threw them out of their nest and built another nest of their own on top. I could tell the babies must have hatched within the last day.

It was odd, I was just walking over to tap on the box and look inside to see if any hatching had happened, and there was a robin just standing nearby. I thought, that's odd. Then when I turned the nestbox just a little on the pole the house wren flew out. Right away I was upset, knowing what might have happened. There was the twiggy nest (like the one I got rid of a few days ago) on top of the pretty soft nest - I took a twig and very gently pushed more twigs away - and - nothing in there, no eggs, no babies. I was confused, and then I remembered what I had read and, sure enough, four babies were in the grass in front of me.

This was very upsetting to me for two reasons: I still can't believe a bird would do this (although logically I know it is a nasty survival instinct for the wrens to do it). Also, I am upset with myself for not checking the nestbox more often, although I was always concerned about making the parents feel intruded upon. Also, the wren guard I had put on the house had been blown up by the wind. Maybe if it had been down this wouldn't have happened.

When I got into the kitchen I cried. My family feels badly for me, but I feel worse for the chickadee babies and parents. I'm going to take the nestboxes down for awhile (there are only three, noone's in residence now) to take a break from worrying about birds.

Just wanted to let everyone know, you've all been so enthusiastic. Sorry I don't have better news.

Donna

Donna, I'm sorry to hear about your chickadee babies. I would have cried too.

Victoria

me, too...

Thanks for your kind words folks, they're appreciated.

As soon as I don't hear the relentless singing of that wren I will let the nestboxes be open again, and maybe it will go better next time! :)

Donna, I'm really sorry for you. I've just now had a similar situation and am completely heartbroken. We had a chickadee nest with a web cam in it. We watched the chickadees nest, lay their eggs, sit on them and finally we watched them hatch. The little babies were so cute. The most adorable thing I've ever seen. We have been taping them and loved them dearly. The little ones were only hatched Mon and Tues. The parents were busy feeding them all day yesterday. We did not have the tape going this morning and I was shocked to discover the nest empty this morning. There is at least one of the adorable little babies dead in the grass underneath. The mother is still coming in and sitting. She has been a great mom and I don't think she knows what to do. I'm actually glad we didn't have the tape running, because I couldn't bear to see what happened to all of those babies, but I don't know. I haven't seen a wren. The hole was only 1 1/4 inch. Very hard on me!

annie,

I am sorry for you, too. It's a sad thing to think about those babies being attacked by some other bird or another predator. I know it's part of nature but it's tough to take. We invest time and emotion and do the best we can to help them along, and then that happens.

If it helps to know, I am feeling a lot better than I did earlier this week. I bet you will after a couple of days too. The day it happened I wasn't myself all day. We get so attached, don't we?

Taking the nestbox down helped to kind of clear the episode from the week and I will wait a little while to put it back up. You must have gotten quite attached seeing all the nice things you did (I just saw the nest full of eggs once).
I did mention in another post that the "fugitive wren" has been hanging around on nearby branches singing when I'm working in the garden. Nervy bird, it makes me mad, singing in my face after destroying the little dee babies. I did throw a 2 x 4 at him; missed, but it made me feel good.

Hang in there - and thanks for your kind words.

Donna

It's been a while, but here is an update! Wrens did appear the day our chickadee nest was emptied, so we are guessing they were responsible. The mother chickadee spent one more night on her empty nest before abandoning it. We ended up putting duct tape over the hole so the wrens couldn't use it and boy did that make them mad!

I've learned that we may have played a role in the chickadees demise. Three years ago chickadees nested in our yard, but the next year wrens did. We kept removing the sticks, but they promptly replaced them. The wrens are hard workers, I'll give them that. Finally we left the wrens alone and they completed a nest, etc. From what I've read, once you let wrens nest in your yard, they become very territorial of it and it is almost impossible for chickadees to have a successful nest there. Last year we put up two very low bluebird boxes and the wrens built dummy nests in them.

Also we had put a few wood chips in our nest box. I think the reason chickadees like a box with wood chips is that it mimics an old woodpecker's nest. If woodpeckers successfully nested in a spot, there is probably a higher chance it will be successful for chickadees. So maybe we gave them a false sense of security.

Well, we live and learn. Every once in a while now I will be outside and I'll hear two chickadees calling and they will fly close to me and flit all around and it makes me really happy. We now have flickers nesting in an old woodpecker hole in our birch tree. Starlings recently fledged from that hole, and there have been a few brawls, but I've got my fingers crossed. A few times I have gone out and banged pans to frighten the starlings away and it seems to work!

Good luck with your nest boxes Donna! Thanks for the pep talk, it was nice to talk with someone who could relate!

Annie

Such sad stories. :(
I love chickadees, but since our old box elder tree fell 2 years ago, they dont visit much.
And now I feel guilty because I was so happy to find a wren nesting in my garden shed. I like their silly songs. I didn't know they were bullies!

I, too, have an update, and a not altogether bad one.

After the chickadee babies were killed I took that nestbox down (with the wrens' nest built on top of the dee nest in it). Within days there was a dummy nest in another, higher nestbox, and a nest in our box up in our tree. That second nest ended up having a family of wren babies (loud ones!) being fed all day, and I was able to listen and see a bit. Although they were probably the "bad wrens" that ruined things for the chickadees, the wren parents cared well for their babies and it was so interesting, lisening to the babies as they got older and ready to fledge, which they have done now.

I still don't like house wrens. But seeing them live their lives taking care of their young was really nice.
Also - blooming in zone5 - don't feel guilty - house wrens are part of life too - and you may even have a Carolina wren in your shed. They are lovely little birds. Look for the very light eyebrow.