Re: Blue tits Cool. She will probably lay one a day for a while, until she has whatever number of eggs is typical for Bluetits, and then she'll sit on them. Do males and female Bluetits share sitting duty, or just the female?
Re: Blue tits Yeah I read it was one a day, like you say, and between 8-14 (but up to 16 sometimes). When she's done laying she will, I read, pluck out her tummy feathers to get a close and warm contact with the eggs. That's when you know hatching is close. Not sure on sitting duty. I didn't know there was a male about. All I read was that it's the female who builds the nest so have assumed that's who we've been seeing. EDIT: just had a read. I did notice in the past couple of days that the song has changed. Does she build the nest then attract a male? Or has it already happened?
Re: Blue tits Good question. Female birds can store semen for quite a long time (weeks) and have it still be viable. So she could have found a mate well before building the nest. But I don't know anything about Bluetits, just a bit about birds in general.
Re: Blue tits Interesting, thanks. The last couple of days have gone from busy busy nest building to... well, nothing. She does not visit the nest at all during the day. She went into the nest at about 8.30pm when it started to get dark and then I just caught her leaving this morning at 5.45am. Just feeding up all day for the egg laying?
Re: Blue tits Yes, I think you're right that she'd be eating as much as possible, both to sustain egg production (requires a lot of energy, nutrients and water) and for the time when she'll be sitting most of the day.
Re: Blue tits [quote author=Karen link=topic=10501.msg158265#msg158265 date=1429695226] I love it! I really need one of these camera and nest box combos. [/quote] My wife bought mine from http://www.gardenature.co.uk/
Re: Blue tits Won't bore you with the picture, but we have egg number two now. I actually caught her laying it on (video) camera too.
Re: Blue tits [quote author=JAYMZ link=topic=10501.msg159504#msg159504 date=1430069396] Eggciting? ??? [/quote] Boom boom!
Re: Blue tits We are at 6... I propose an eggcellent competition. A sweepstake... I understand that there can be up to 16 eggs. But normally between 8 and 14. She will lay one a day, so we're six days into it. Whoever guesses the final tally of eggs will be granted the prestigious honour of naming the first chick. (And the male if he ever shows himself) [the female is already named Tracy!! Don't ask!] EDIT: The Sweep: 6 - 7 - (Debs, I think - lost in post purge) 8 - Naya 9 - Kirriegirl 10 - Oberon 11 - bbrown 12 - Pongo (Rosie) 13 - snowbunny 14 - 15 - drjs@5 16 - 17 -
Re: Blue tits We seem to have gone back in a time a bit and some of the guesses are gone. Anyway, we are at 8...
Re: Blue tits [quote author=JAYMZ link=topic=10501.msg159709#msg159709 date=1430286097] We seem to have gone back in a time a bit and some of the guesses are gone. Anyway, we are at 8... [/quote] Yes, we seem to have lost quite a few of the forum messages since yesterday evening. Hopefully they'll be restored once the techie folk wake up
