My eight pairs of birds produced 40 eggs, not the 39 I had posted.
I was checking the chicks today and noticed the mites were out of control; seven of the eight nest were "crawling". Gourd 6 has three chicks that are at least 12 days old; it had two eggs pecked by sparrows. Buried deep under the nesting material was another egg. It was very dirty and had also been pecked.
Hey Perry...I have to "borrow" your concise and informative way to show the stats. I have...
24 House Sparrows (deceased) I had over 500 last year.
40 eggs laid in 8 nests
34 Purple Martin Young
3 Nests with no Eggs (1 bachelor pad and 2 empty gourds)
Lost Purple Martin Eggs
3 Pecked
2 Infertile
1 with tiny dead embryo
I also had two capped eggs, but I "uncaped" them during nest checks and they both hatched strong, healthy chicks the next day.
I found one last egg during nest change
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Caroline94535-ND
- Posts: 337
- Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 10:12 am
- Location: North Dakota/Larimore
- Martin Colony History: Will add later
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Perry D. Vogel
- Posts: 163
- Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2004 2:08 pm
- Location: North Dakota/Grand Forks
A capped egg is one where the shell from another hatchling's egg slips over an un-hatched egg preventing it from hatching and untimely killing the un-hatched.
On Friday my purple martin house was covered in mites. I got out the Sevin and sprinkled it around. I only used it in unoccupied nests since I didn't have time to do nest replacements at that time. The mites are history. I will do nest replacements today.
On Friday my purple martin house was covered in mites. I got out the Sevin and sprinkled it around. I only used it in unoccupied nests since I didn't have time to do nest replacements at that time. The mites are history. I will do nest replacements today.