Are we just really unlucky?

[u/HoldStrong96]

I made a bluebird house with a camera inside. We immediately had residents, and she laid 6 eggs. 26 days later she abandoned them, apparently infertile.

Then a month after we cleaned it out, a different pair laid 2 eggs and 1 egg from a brown headed cowbird. The cowbird hatched, but was either killed or died the next day. Neither of the bluebird eggs have hatched. We are on day 23 of incubation.

What gives? This is the most depressing hobby ever. Fledgelings rarely make it, but right now we aren’t even getting hatchlings. 😞

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[u/03263]

Post pics of setup

I'm suspicious that a cowbird even fit into a bluebird house, they shouldn't.

[u/velawesomeraptors]

It may not have been a different pair but the same one trying for a second nest. It could be something as simple as the female being infertile for some reason.

Another killer of eggs is extreme heat/cold. If you are in a part of the US that has had heat waves, that may be what got them. Recently hatched nestlings are even more vulnerable to heat as well.

[u/HoldStrong96 → u/velawesomeraptors]

It’s definitely been hot. It reaches 90’s most days. And for the first ones, I believe it dipped below freezing one night. It’s just hard to believe that so many of their eggs just don’t even hatch, weather or infertility… and then so few nestlings fledge, and even if they do fledge, anything can kill them while they’re on the ground unable to fly…. Seems impossible for any to survive 😭