No offense to Old Hazza, but the eggs we raise are the best I have ever tasted in my life... They are laid by 100% free range chickens. They eat all that is available on our small farm including fibrous grass, bugs, and other such things... I think that the difference might be that they are happy chickens. We have 16 laying hens and each has their own personality, likes and dislikes, etc. I have a favorite named Phoenix because she is fire red. She sits on my shoulder while I mow the grass... As content as can be. They roost in the trees at night and scratch around all day. They visit with us and chase the cats and all sorts of funny things. They are great producers and fun pets. We don't weigh or measure their eggs or rate the shades of the yolks, but we eat them everyday and breakfast just seems like one big dessert! In my life I have never enjoyed a more rich, hearty, creamy, delicious egg from any other source. Can it not be true that happy hens just produce better "quality" eggs? I know we need large farms and such but that just don't settle well with me... It makes me feel bad to think about the mundane lives that they have... Just sayin...

Cghpnd, I'm so sorry you're having bad luck. Did they seem OK when you found them? Are there more cats still living? If so, make sure you separate the eggs from them. You probably want to have multiple containers that you can move the cats and eggs to as they grow, and clean the alternate containers with bleach each time you switch them out. There are nasty diseases that Monarchs can carry and pass on to one another. Some people who raise Monarchs insist that each cat should be kept in an individual container. It certainly makes sense to keep small groups separate, so if one container is infected, at least the other groups have a chance to avoid infection. And wash hands and milkweed carefully. Again, some people soak their milkweed in a weak bleach solution and then rinse it thoroughly before giving it to their cats, in case sick cats have crawled over the leaves before they collected them. Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket, but there is obviously something seriously wrong, and I want the rest of your experience to be positive. Martha

My guess is they are cowbird eggs. Very gently remove the brown speckled eggs (as not to crack the bb eggs) they will hatch before the bluebird eggs do and will eventually take over the nest box and the baby blues probably will not survive. I get them in the poor chipping sparrows nest and the cowbird babies are bigger than the nest. The chipping sparrow eggs are thrown out of the nest by the baby cowbirds. Karen

Be careful Jinx, next thing you know you will want an egg coddler . . . We had the cups when I was a kid but I have decided I don't really like the process so I can't justify the storage space they would take up. I did inherit a little gizmo to "poach" an egg in the microwave. It's very fast and the egg comes out perfectly round. I use it to make egg sandwiches on an english muffin. I thought I would not like it but it has worked out well in use.