Yes Deanie. Not a dumb question. You want to keep the HOSPs out of the box, and the Chickadee hole is too small for them. I don't know that a hole reducer would keep a House Wren out though. You may not have them in your yard. I had never ever laid eyes upon one until last summer. On May 1st, I had one show up in my yard. It went from box to box, filling each one with sticks. They are like the HOSPs in that they will destroy eggs and nests of other cavity nesters. They do not look or sound like our sweet Carolina Wrens.~Angie

I agree with bigmatt. Every time I think the nest is finished I will see the mama several days later taking more nesting into the box. It's not uncommon for either of the pair to not be seen for a couple of days. She could skip a day in the laying process. Once she lays the last egg and starts incubating she will be around a lot more.

Hi! A couple weeks ago we noticed 2 Carolina wrens building their nest in our fern right outside of our kitchen window. We were so excited! Then a few days ago we no longer saw them around and sadly thought that they had abandoned their nest. This morning we were talking about removing the nest from the fern and when I peeked, I saw 5 eggs! Now we are concerned if they have abandoned their eggs :( Is this possible? We haven't seen them around at all. What time of the day do they incubate? Would it be possible that we are missing their timing? We are not morning risers. Agh! I'd be so sad if by any chance we scared them away :( We have been very respectful, however sometimes we would open the window. I do not know how long the eggs have been there. I thought that as soon as they were close to being done building their nest, they had left. Do they first build and then lay their eggs? Thank you so much!

I came across this information http://www.sialis.org/chickadee.htm . It mentions that they can be prone to premature fledging if disturbed. They usually fledge at 16 days. They usually nest in a cavity so they wouldn't be able to fall out. All eight of the ones in my nesting box seem to get along and I never noticed the first born picking on the ones hatched later. Maybe something got at them.