You know, it was not expensive in money OR time to do this, it was pretty darned simple. :) DH got a PS EyeToy color camera for $5.00 at Gamestop, and YahooLive is the host for the cam, sound and chat, at no cost to us. My husband had the know-how to get things going, but you can find out online and it isn't difficult or complicated. The number of people viewing the cam and talking in chat crashes my husband's computer sometimes, but we just restart things and everything's fine. We wanted to hatch chicks anyway, so thought we'd share the experience. The cam just pointed through the viewing panes in the lid of the incubator, now we set it inside the brooder box. Baby chicks DO have a wonderful effect on all who gaze upon them, it's like Valium for your eyes. *L* And yeah, it is VERY remarkable that Chicken Sister has babies this late in life--but then, both of the boys LOVE her to distraction, you should have seen them run over and burble over her when we brought her back from the vet after her egg-binding adventure. What a couple of love-struck chuckleheads. :) It was very sweet, they missed her so! We'll be hatching again the weekend of June 21st, and will resume chickam then, if anyone wants to watch. We will have our incubators issues solved before we start more eggs. Velvet ~:>

Congrats, Penny! I released five more today, so I should be seeing plenty of them in my garden. Fortunately, all the pipevines are making new growth! Sherry

Good to here someone has activity! You of course have read of my troubles with the swallows and the fact that my blues are wasting time and doing nothing. 1 TRES nest completed, 1 almost complete. This time last year I had a completed BB nest and 5 eggs. This year, not one completed BB nest and no absolute claims for the boxes. Why are they being so slow???? It's not much of a wonder why they suffer competition problems...how did they not go extinct during the decline of the 1800's? I've lost plenty of female BBs and nest attempts. Although every season got better with the exception of this year. Ahh, Time to quit rambling! Good luck! Heck, you're lucky to have them nesting! Mine are just wasting time and boring me. -Tim-

I had to put new mylar strips on the bluebird house last night due to lots of windy weather lately (most of them had ripped off in the wind). Anyway, I wasn't in the house more than a half hour and a thunder storm with HIGH WINDS swept through our area! Hope my babies are OK today. Anyway, the mylar is again all stuck together and most of it is torn off. I will need to put new mylar on it again tonight. Oh well, anything to help my bluebirds. Since I was out there last night, I decided to look inside again, and I was pleased to find the last egg had hatched!