I can't tell u how lucky u r. I hope every year I have chickadees nesting with me. Please keep us posted on the progress. Bless u for wrapping a towel around the box to help keep the eggs warm. Lucky u!!! Karen

I've been lucky enough to "host" chickadees for the last 6 years. The first year it was a little war between the bluebirds and the chickadees. The bluebirds have always, w/o a single exception, used the back yard nest box. They already had five eggs and incubation had started when the chickadees started nest building in a front yard box. The bluebirds were having "none of that" and constantly harassed them by going in and out of the dee nest box. I was advised to add a 1 1/8 or 1 /14th inch hole reducer to keep the bluebirds OUT and I did and things were fine for both the bluebirds and the dees. I have bluebirds in the back yard right now and the dees have laid their third egg today in the front yard box. So far, the bluebirds are not bothering the dee box but if they do I'll add the reducer again. I agree with Elly, do no disturb that nest. It's possible the dees will return or that they have and you've just missed seeing them. While they do incubate every day it's possible they have not started incubating yet. Most times females do start incubation the day before, day of or day after the last egg is laid but not 100% of the time so it's premature to think they won't return. I would recommend that you add a reducer to keep the bluebirds out of the box. If, after that, the chickadees don't come back for a full week then I'd remove the nest and eggs and the reducer. But, be sure you've had a chance to look at the box for a full hour before assuming it's been abandoned.

I have a small basket hanging on a hook on my covered porch. Usually, Carolina wrens nest in it. But the other day I saw a chickadee fly out of it. I want to take it down and look into it and see if there are eggs. Will that scare her away? It's kinda neat to see a different bird nesting there for a change! I have several old, small baskets and didn't know what to use them for......so I've hung them around for birds.

I watched most of the video (my attention span is shortish) - it seems that incubating eggs (at least for chickadees) is not a matter of just plopping down on the eggs and dozing off. There's a lot of twitching and wriggling and rearranging the eggs and eating snacks brought by the male. I counted nine eggs during one of her times off the nest. I hope all goes well and we get to see hatching and fledging. Claire