I have heard of this. It was quite a few years ago. I don't remember what the advise was. I don't think it is on the sialis.org website. I would find some nice soft grasses ( Or whatever she used last time) and dry them in the oven on low heat, cool then use a square Tupperware container to fashion a nest. Use 2 people to get it in the box. One to hold the nest and another to gently lift the eggs into it with a plastic spoon.
I would do this when you can monitor to be sure she has accepted the change.

She always uses pine needles. Maybe I can try that. Do others clear out the used nests? I always do, but my hubby thinks I should have left it. Even though the the blues do a better job than other varieties of birds at keeping the nests clean, it still always looks really bad. I worry about insects, etc. That's why I always clean them out and it's never been a problem before. Those two little blue eggs look so forlorn lying in that bare box. :o(

Wow, I've never heard of that happening before. You should always clean out the nest after fledging, normally if you don't they will build a new nest on top of the old one. Also like you said the nests are dirty and they shouldn't be used again. I would get pine needles and make a bed of them in there, if that is what she normally uses. I would carefully ake the eggs out with a plastics spoon and set them in something with a towel so they don't break. Then make the nest and then replace them in the box. Good luck and be very careful!

Donna

Wow. I've never heard of this happening either. I agree with Lisa and Donna. Make a pine straw nest and gently put the eggs inside. She should accept it just fine. I always clean my old nests out as soon as the babies fledge. The moms don't reuse the old nests.

Thanks, all. I am going to have to go in search of the pine needles. I use shredded mulch in my flower beds, etc., and if I can't find a handful of pine straw somewhere near, I'll have to go to the garden center and purchase a bale. I feel like I have to try, even if she doesn't accept it.

I had seen a few springs of pine needles poking out of the door a day or so ago, so I thought she had built a new nest. But when I opened it there were only 2 or 3 needles and the sad little eggs. She definitely is not incubating them, but it is very warm (mid 90s) so perhaps they are still viable. I've noticed in the past that they don't start incubating regularly until the whole clutch has been deposited. ... Was wondering ... is it possible that the female just wanted to get rid of the eggs and had no intention of incubating them? Knowing she had them inside and needing to be out ... just went back to her familiar box and deposited them.

If you can't find the pine needles, dry grass will work too. She will add to it and adjust it to her liking. You are correct that she shouldn't start incubating until the full clutch is laid. Some birds do practice "egg dumping" but I've never heard of that with Bluebirds, so I expect she just needed to lay before she had time to build the nest. Let us know how it goes.

Okay, my neighbor had pine needles. With the help of my hubby we gently lifted the eggs with a spoon and kept them in a safe place while I built a nest inside the box. We gently laid the two eggs in the middle of the nest and closed the box. I haven't seen her in the yard at all for the past several hours, but we have been having thunderstorms, so she is probably with her other "children" riding out the weather.

Now, having done all we can do, we will play the waiting game. Hopefully, she'll come back and be happy about the help and move right in. If not ... :o(

BTW - building nests is not as easy as the birds make it look!

WOW! I cannot wait to hear how this goes. I hope mama lays more eggs and appreciates your help. Let us know.

I can't wait to hear how this turns out either. I'm so glad that I found this site so I can hopefully learn about things like this and know better what to expect (mostly the unexpected like this).

I found this site several years ago when I was first trying to attract blues. It was very helpful to me and has prepared me for many things as I've enjoyed many blue families. But this took me totally by surprise. I have not seen the blues checking out the box at all since I put the nest in. They usually are very active around it in the mornings, but this morning the female came to the yard and the tree near the box, but didn't even look inside. I'm so anxious for her to discover that the "nest fairy" has visited her. :o)

Do you know when the two eggs were laid? Normally a Bluebird will lay one egg each day until the clutch is complete and then start incubating. If you aren't seeing more eggs being laid then maybe she isn't going to incubate them.

Donna

It was either Thursday and Friday, or Friday and Saturday. Sunday I peeped in only to find them lying on the wooden floor of the box. Two or three pieces of pine needles were there - but it seemed as if she just couldn't hold back long enough to build the nest, I guess. I have not seen the male nor the female in the vicinity until a couple hours ago (this is Tuesday). They were checking out the box and seemed totally perplexed. The male spent a good bit of time looking inside the door while the female sat in the nearby tree. Then they flew off together. I hope me building a nest for them hasn't spooked them.

If those were her eggs, the nest you built wouldn't spook them. If by chance they were another bluebirds egg though, then they may pass at this box. I would just keep watching I guess. Do you have any other nestboxes up?

Donna

I had a similar problem. For the third nesting of the season, it looked like she had chosen the second box in my yard - not the one she used the last time. She started a nest and I cleaned out the other box. After I cleaned it out, she started a nest in that box. After only putting in about an inch worth of pinestraw, she started laying eggs. There are now a total of three eggs. The last one was laid on Monday, so it doesn't look like there are going to be any more. Will check again tomorrow to make sure. Since there is at least a small nest in the box, I have chosen to leave it alone. You may have read my previous post about missing eggs. This has really been a different bluebird season! I think I have a very inexperienced mama here!

I checked the "home-made" nest again today and there are still only 2 eggs. I just don't think she is going to incubate them. She may be inexperienced, like you say, and may not even be the same female that raised the most recent brood. You know, we do what we can. Nature has to take over from there. I feel so bad ... like I should have just left it alone, but my hubby says that I should quit feeling bad because I did what I thought was best and that's all we can do. I'm still sad. :o(

You shouldn't feel bad about it. Adding the nesting material would not scare her away from the box. If she is ignoring those eggs, she would have ignored them anyway.

I agree with Kendra. No need to feel badly at all. You did the absolute right thing. You are right when you say that nature does take over. It always will, in spite of what we hope for. You did good!! Thanks for trying. :o)

We have helped the bluebirds for yrs providing them w/ boxes. We’ve noticed that younger birds will lay usually 3 eggs & older ones lay 4-5 eggs. This spring we had a pair lay 5 eggs & from past experience, probably because of the size of the box, that @ least one will either die from suffocation or from being @ the bottom too much & not get enough food. When we’ve had only 3 eggs, everyone was healthy. We chose to discard 2 of the five eggs so everyone would make it. Everything seemed to be going fine until one morning a coon must have tried getting into the box. The whole nest was packed tight into the opening. I pulled the nest out & found the new born babies in the bottom of the box. I tried repairing the nest & putting the babies back in, but I think they had been hurt too much when the coon was in there. We even have a predator guard on the entrance hole, but didn’t phase him. The parents seemed to try for a few days, but realized their babies were dead. I decided to take everything out & just leave the clean shavings in the bottom, hoping they’d start a new family. I always clean everthing out anyway after the babies have fled the nest. Well, it seemed like that’s what was going to happen. I saw the male & female on the top of the box seeming happy. We checked this morning thinking we’d find a new nest being built, but no. She laid 2 eggs in the bottom of the box on the sawdust. I’ve never seen this before & we’ve been doing this for 40 yrs.

I have had birds lay as many as 5 eggs before and they all survived. Once I even had six! But on that brood the last to fledge could not fly well. I don't know what happened to him. I never remove any. I think the parents know pretty well how to handle the situation.

I didn’t want to be mean by taking a couple eggs out of the nest, because I love bluebirds. I think our box is too small. We’ve had several times when the babies start getting big & it turns into survival if the fittest. I hate to see any suffer. We’ll make a bigger box so many eggs will developed right. Thank you for responding.