I believe that incubation begins about 5 days after the first egg is laid and normally runs about 14 days indigo. So then, we can assume that we should see hatchlings around about 19-20 days after we see the first egg. I have been told that a cold snap coming in will sometimes delay the onset of incubation. Candling the eggs will tell you what you need to know. I think that it is always best to err on the side of extreme caution. Our primary goal is to help the birds to have successful nestings.

Hi Kathleen- I'll address you since the other posts are old. I am so very sorry that you have experienced this. Did you read what the responses were to the older post of one that lost a bluebird on the nest? I would just repeat everything that they said. If absolutely no sign of injury, I would suspect lawn pesticides, but considering what happened to the 1st person that posted & didn't see signs of injury on her bluebird, it did turn out to be house sparrows. I would highly suspect this. Do you think the female is dead too? If so, again I would be suspicious of HOSP. Answering your question, the male would not starve himself, nor is he able to brood eggs. If the female died too, the eggs wouldn't have hatched because the female is the one to incubate the eggs. She has a brooding patch on her lower abdomen that the male doesn't have. If she is alive, she may not be returning to nest because of the failed nest situation, especially if there was foul play. Make sure you know that she is not returning before removing the nest & eggs. If she is alive, she will probably try to find a new mate. Without repeating too much, make sure your birdhouse is on a pole with a baffle & put a sparrow spooker up after the 1st egg. If you know for sure that the nest has been abandoned & you don't get any activity, you may want to change the location of the box (birdhouse). If you immediately get a house sparrow setting up shop, then you'll know that was most likely the culprit. Again, if female is not returning, now would be the time to get a Van Ert trap for your house to trap the male & female HOSP. If you do, make sure you are monitoring every hour if possible so you don't trap a native bird. They can die in there if without food for too long. One of the previous posts left a website for the Van Ert trap. Again, the previous posts left great advice for your situation. This site is not as active as it used to be for bluebirders, so you may want to post to bluebirdnut.com. Lots of bluebird experts are on that site like this one used to have. That's where I go whenever I need advice. BTW, I lived in Atlanta for ten years (live in AL now). Very sorry to hear about your bluebird tragedy. Hope you'll have another pair come for a future nesting, but definitely get that sparrow spooker!

For at least 7 years bluebirds have been nesting & living in 1 particular house..... my fault I did not clean out the house - so she built a nest inside of a metal engine hoist (we own a body, paint & mechanic shop).... first she laid 1 egg then it was 3 then there was 5 then there was 8 which was a very surprising but now there's 5..... I don't believe any type of animal could crawl up there or reach in to get the eggs it is kind of deep would the mother bird do something to the eggs if she thought she had too many?

I was checking our bird houses and found one with what seem to be 4 bluebird eggs (correct me if I’m wrong), but 2 of them were placed to the side of the nest like they had been rejected. Any ideas on why this would happen? (Picture in comments)