Angie, I read somewhere that the black females are most common in the South. I used to see black gals almost all the time, and yellow females were rare, but since the hurricane (has anything been the same since then?) the yellow ones are showing up more often, still not as common as the black ones, but less rare. I think they're the prettiest, the yellow and blue look so good together. I don't see too many tiger eggs, probably because most are laid high up. Around here, if you want to see tiger swallowtails flying, just look up! Sherry

tnjoseph....they lay one egg per day until the clutch is complete. Check tomorrow afternoon, you should see another egg. Don't check in the morning as that is typically when they lay eggs. Knock sofly on the box before opening or talk a bit so she knows you are coming if she is in there. Once she is done laying she will start incubating..incubation typically starts the day the last egg is laid. Incubation is normally 12-14 days and then hatching occurs. Typically 14 days is the norm. Once hatched the nestlings are in the box 16-19 days before they fledge. You can look to make sure all is ok but don't open the box after day 13 to prevent premature fledging. Agree with Nicknack...get a spooker up asap! Glad to hear you got so many HOSP..hopefully they don't bother you anymore. Donna

Today I found an egg in that nest! It's 2cm long (20.5 mm). According to http://www.sialis.org/eggsizes.htm it could be a Carolina wren or House sparrow. It's larger than the wren and smaller than the sparrow. While investigating, a carolina wren was screaming at me from a near by bush, and it seemed to be very upset with me for being there. It may be his nest or he could have a nest near by. I installed spooker on bluebird house that on this yard. Just in case if this is house sprarrow nest. Babies pretty big in this box. (I wrote abot 4 babies earlier, but I was wrong about quantity) I can't stay on that yard for long to make sure they accepted it because have small baby with me right now. Do you think this is a good idea or I should take it down? This is the box Janie - birds lay one egg in day, and same, as you wrote it earlier, skip a day in egg laying. She starting incubation only after she will lay her last egg. All this time eggs stay cold - up to 10 days if she skipping days and lay 5 egg. I surprised that this is new for you.

A little late, but... If you want to try breeding your bettas, there's a couple things you need to do. First is to set up a breeding tank. Doesn't have to be very big, but should be mostly empty (no gravel, bubble bars, or filter). What should be in there are some easily removable things that the female will (once added) will be able to hide in or behind...maybe a clump of dense plants, a tube of some sort, that sort of stuff. The male should be in there alone first. I think at least a day, maybe a couple...he needs to have it be his territory. You'll also want to get yourself something that the male can make a nest in. I used a med sized styrofoam Dunkin Donuts cup, cut in half lengthwise, and taped it to the inside of the tank. The mouth of the cup should be against the glass (so you can see inside), the "body" of the cup making a tent of sorts on the top of the water, and the open/cut part should sit maybe a 1/2 inch below the water level, . This will give the nest, which is made of spit bubbles by the male, protection from agitation in the water and keep the enviroment humid as well. Then when you want to add the female, you'll need to put her in basically a glass tube - a chimmney from an oil lamp (washed and rinsed *very* well) works nicely. You place the glass tube in the middle of the tank, and drop the female down into it. Have her be there for a day or 2. The male will circle the female, flaring out his fins (he's just stunning!) and gills, and generally working himself into a tizzy of lust *L*. When you remove the glass, it begins. There will be a lot of chasing and hiding and that sort of thing...sometimes kinda brutal. But eventually they'll figure things out and start to mate, which is just amazing. They wrap themselves together, some fluids will be exchanged, and the eggs will fall. The female will likely faint dead away, floating to the top and hanging there on her side for a few minutes. While she's recovering, the male will pick up all the egs in his mouth and spit them up into the cup, each egg in a spit bubble, where they will float on the surface. Eventually they'll stop mating and you'll need to remove the female. The male will then attend the nest as needed until the fry start to hatch. Most eggs that fall will be picked up and replaced in the nest, and I think (but don't remember for sure) that he will also eat the bad/dead ones. Oh, and you shouldn't feed the fish during any of this either...they'll do fine for those few days. Once the eggs start to hatch, the male will need to be removed too. Ugh. I'm writing all this from memory from many years ago, and of course can't remember how to care for the fry. I think you'll still want some dense plant for them to hang out in, they don't appreciate moving water (they're not much for swimming right away), but you may be able to get away with a very weak air-powered sponge filter. Their food should be liquid, and the water will need frequent and very careful changing. I was never able to raise a batch - ended up having to move in the middle of it all and lost them - but it's definitely do-able. And again, very, very cool :)