i was reading this thread with interest. i have a situation where it appears i have 8 bluebirds who have hatched in one nest (thursday may 2, they were born). it may be 9, it's hard to tell. while monitoring the nest in late april i noticed what appeared to be eggs missing from the 3 that had been laid earlier in that week. the reality was that the eggs had been pushed down deeper into the nest and covered with pine straw. the mother kept coming back (may have been another species coming in and covering the egg with straw? i have seen no house sparrows here at all) and eventually she started laying again. turns out, there were 10 eggs total in this nest when she was done! i guess five from the first attempt and 5 after that. bottom line, 8 babies are in there now. i'm putting out meal worms twice a day and making sure there's lots of water nearby in the bird bath, and plenty of shelled sunflower seeds for the parents nearby in that feeder. anyone ever seen or heard of a situation like this?

Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 days after the nest is built for the blues to start laying eggs. I strung fishing line on either side of the entrance hole. I used 4 tacks...two on the top on either side of the hole and two on the bottom. Just wrap the fishing line around the tacks on either side of the hole, close to the opening but of courses not blocking it. I found out how to do it online. I leave it there all of the time. That is supposed to help. I also use a sparrow spooker after the first egg is laid. I have 3 baby blues now.

Amazing! I never gave much thought to the hatching process..that the Mom stands guard the whole time and keeps everything moving. I knew they ate the shells - partly for calcium I think, but had no idea about the "gentle pecking". Kind of like when they rub babies in the hospital I guess. Gets them moving and breathing. We are definitely going to install cameras next year! I know I'll never be able to match the camera work of some of you but it must be magical to watch all of these things take place. Thanks for sharing. tara

Bluebirds lay one egg per day until the clutch is complete. Did she start laying eggs on May 28th or was she done laying all six eggs on the 29th? If she started laying on the 28th then the last egg would have been laid on the 2nd of June which would make this 15 days since incubation started. They start incubating normally the day the last egg was laid and incubation is typically 12-14 days but can be as long as 20 days. If she was done laying eggs on the 29th then this would be day 19 of incubation. Either way I would keep waiting to see what happens. It is too early to say they won't be hatching and I would definately not be removing those eggs. If you want to know if the female is incubating them you could put a small dot with a marker on one of the eggs, look the next day to see if it has been moved as the female will rotate the eggs during incubation. You should not touch eggs with your bare hands as the oils from your hands can clog the pores on the eggs and cause them to not develop. These should be close to hatching though so I "think" it will be ok. Good luck and just be patient. Donna