Karen - Seems your female is a bit ahead of schedule... But I would hope you still have a good chance for hatchlings if she's incubating and staying in the box a lot. I suspect she knows she has to keep those eggs warm, and will try to. Connie - Sorry I know next to nothing about ducks. I would worry too if they're not incubating yet. Our Missy Blue has been incubating 5 blue eggs day and night for the past 10days. She spends most of her time on the nest, with just short breaks during the day. Her Mr.B is feeding her thru the hole like a champ. It's also a good bit warmer here I'm sure, altho we've approached freezing two nights since the last egg was laid. I wish best luck to all of us, Kenn

Kathy, thanks for your advice I went out this evening and used one of my grandkids plastic spoon since they're tiny and removed the eggs ever so gently, one of the babies thought I was mom and had its mouth open for feeding LOL...but I was able to remove the eggs and I brought them into my house and cracked them and they were not developed just yolk so maybe on her next nesting she'll have better luck with all the eggs.

Ok so I am very new to the details of bluebirding. I am really worried that I may have chased my bluebirds away! I am learning daily more of what I should and should not do. I just put up a mealworm feeding dish for my bluebirds (that have already had and fledged one brood so far). I placed it near the nest at a place on my fenceline where they like to perch. I have seen them eating them. Yesterday, I saw them rebuilding a nest in their birdhouse, as I had cleaned out the old one. I did check on their progress this morning around 9:30am to see if they had laid any eggs and then proceeded to put out a new batch of mealworms for them. I did not take long doing any of this. I did not see them at all today and it did not seem that (other than a Chameleon who ate one of the worms when I was watching) they ate any of these mealworms as they are still in the feeder. I feel badly as I know now I should not have checked the nest this morning and waited until the afternoon. Is it likely they are gone? Is is common at all to not see them for a day or so? I so hope they will be back as they were with us last year as well. I so appreciate any input as I am so concerned...I don't want them to be gone. ):

Jeannie, I don't know if you can tell when the photo is enlarged, but the chrysalis has been formed on a piece of fine netting. With this group, I raised them in clear 32 oz food containers, which look like big soda cups. I place a round piece of netting over the top and secure with a rubber band. When the cat forms his chrysalis, it is attached to the netting and I can then place it on a piece of Styrofoam like you see. When they begin to darken, I take the netting and safety pin it to a ribbon dangling from the ceiling in a butterfly rearing cage. When they eclose, they can cling to the netting and dry. Once dry, I release them. Using these containers requires a lot of work if there are large numbers of cats, as I only keep one or two cats per container and they must be fed frequently. I keep cut up pieces of paper towel to use in the bottom of the cups. My son refers to these paper towels pieces as butterfly diapers. These are replaced several times in a 24 period, so the container is kept clean. I've gotten quite good at being able to gently remove the rubber band by pushing it off of the bottom of the container. Then I secure the netting circle with a clothes pin while I work on the container, even when there is a cat clinging to the netting. When this simple equipment is no longer needed, I sanitize and dry the netting and containers, then stack and store for future use. Using these small containers, I can remove leaf material from a milkweed and feed individual leaves. I didn't have a lot of big mw plants this spring, so this allowed me to selectively remove leaves from growing plants and keep the plants producing. Later in the season, I can place a pot of fresh milkweed in the rearing cage and let them have at it until time to replace the pot with a new pot. That is a lot less time consuming, as not having to harvest individual leaves and cleaning one cage a couple of times a day is far easier than many individual containers but I didn't have much potted milkweed available this spring so had to resort to selectively plucking leaves. :-) I got the idea for using these little containers, Clear Food Storage Containers from a past forum member who showed photos of his rearing set up, which he kept in his office. The netting circles I buy packaged, about 12 circles to a package. I've forgotten what they're called but I found them in Wedding Supplies. Actually, the number of spring cats this year has surprised me. If not for having the use of young milkweed from my small greenhouse, these particular little guys would never have reached adulthood because I didn't have enough emerging garden milkweed to support them. Mary