Hi guys,

I wrote on here I believe a couple months ago. I'm pretty sure back in July. My blue female laid 6 eggs and they did not hatch. My reversed pied female laid 2 and they didn't hatch. I recieved excellent advice from everyone on here and I also was told that it's pretty normal for first time moms to not have the eggs hatch. Well I have never had baby birds so this is my first experience with the whole thing. My blue female laid her second clutch in early august. I didn't have my hopes up. I figured it would be another dud clutch.

Well one day I heard a noise, little squeeky sounds. It sounds funny but I was actually looking around the house thinking it was something squeeking like the stove or fridge or something HAHA!!! Then DUH I realized that it was coming from the nest box...Nooooo I thought. But yes....when I checked...MY FIRST BABY!!! That was August 25th. Well so far I have 4 little babies. Another hatched yesterday but it died. I have 2 more eggs left. Not sure if they will hatch or not, she laid 3 of them alot later that the first 4. Like I said one hatched the other day but died. So I'm waiting to see if I will have 6 babies or not. If not I'm happy with the four. They are the cutest little scrawny, fuzzy, things I ever seen.

I was wondering one thing though. I'm kind of a neat freak when it comes to cleaning the bird cages. I checked the nest box yesterday and as you all probably know it was filled with bird poo. Can I go in there and clean it or is mama blue bird going to be mad?? I had to remove all the babies yesterday anyway to get that dead baby out. She didn't seem too mad but I don't want to disrupt her nesting habits. I'm just wondering if anyone else cleans the nest box as the babies get older. I just hate to see them sit in their poo. Thanks Guys!!! I'm so happy!!!

JJ

Hi JJ,

I have only had experience with one clutch, but I tapped on the nest box each time I would open the box day to let the hen know I was there. The first few weeks, every second day, I would take each chick out of the nest, and place them in an ice cream container (the hen would leave the box), clean it, put more oats & seed in there, then put the chicks back. All up would barely take me 5 minutes. Got to the point, that as soon as I tapped on the box, the hen would leave the nest.

The older the chicks got, I was cleaning it daily, and having them out of the nest for longer periods. She was very accommodating, and I felt comfortable they weren't sitting in lots of poo, plus the poo & food sticks hard to their little legs, so it's good to check them often. I was also a bit paranoid about it!

 

The outcome of it was that when they fledged, they were all extremely friendly, would perch or your finger, eat out of my hand.

 

It was a nerve wracking experience, but I loved every minute of it, and thoroughly enjoyed each and everyone of their little character traits.

 

Good luck

Robyn

Edited September 9, 201014 yr by RJT

i love every minute of it. The little ones are getting their down feathers. It is so cool to see the whole process first hand. thanks for the advice.

Jaime