First Babies! Some misc questions about findings this year.

[ron20m]

Had my first 5 nests hatch. Last year was possibly worst year in last 15. I've lived on this property 15 years had a single Trio on it when I bought it. Expanded to three units over the years. This is the first year in 15 that almost all the nests, 16/18 were laid at the same time. I have two new nests over the last week.
Also first time I've seen so many 7 and 6 egg batches.
Questions: Do you think it is a maturing colony, or that mother nature knows last year was terrible and trying to kick up egg production the following year.
I have not noticed any young birds, almost all seem to be ASY, I guess due to poor year last year. I've also switched to all gourds. In the past I thought the gourds had more eggs. Possible?
Do you guys have your start times clustered on the front end like this? In the past I've had them spread out by as much as 2 months and fledged a nest the second week of August. Again this could be the lack of immature birds due to last years hot weather.

[Dan Clodfelter]

Ron , you switched to gourds and notice your egg numbers going up . If you use the right size gourds your egg numbers will really go up . I mainly run all gourds and find 6 to 9 eggs in all gourds . Last year my best was 9 eggs in a double gourd , had no gourds with 8 eggs and several with 6 and 7 eggs . My aluminum Trio Castle mainly runs 5 eggs due to smaller compartments . Last year I fledged 342 babies . I hope I answered part of your questions.

[parkerdes]

I have 5-6 eggs in all ASY nests with one 7 egg nest in an expanded Trio compartment with tunnel...all 7 hatched. I have all expanded compartments in my housing & all nests are about the same in both gourds & houses...but this is only my 4the season. Last year I lost 2 late groups of fledges to heat.
Hadn't had but 2 SY males here until this past week when a few more have shown up...now I lost the nest of my only SY pair's hatchlings(infanticide) & it appears the other male is trying to convince the SY female to use the same compartment she just lost her babies in! We will see if she re-lays!???
Are your housing compartments expanded? I added tunnels to 6 compartments & have 2 double wides with 2 single center compartments for the spare-o-door trap in my Trio MSS12 house. 7 of the 8 have nestlings & the last one has a single SY male claiming it . Before I modified it...I only had 1 pair per side even with porch dividers. It also has my only 7 egg nest in it!
My 24 castle is modified with double wide compartments but they all have the wall section in them with a hole in it. I only have 4 nests in it. The nests all have either 5 or 6 eggs in them but I am considering taking out the walls between over the winter to see if they like it better. I have SREHs on all compartments.
It seems to me the expanded house compartments have the same size clutches as my gourds but I'm no expert!!!

[Ken&Sheryle - TX]

You know that's an interesting question because we rarely get 7 eggs, but this year we have several with 7 eggs and even one with 8 eggs..probably all will not hatch but who knows...I am just so happy we have so many with 6 or more eggs this year...we normally don't...our housing is quite adequate for the birds laying 6 or 7 eggs...

Congrats...

:)Sheryle

[ron20m]

K&S I think nature does have a way of knowing that last year was a bad year and maybe they kick it up a reproductive notch somehow. I've had six a lot but never 7 and I have several 7's.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

We all like to see nests with a lot of eggs, but maybe 6 or 7 is too many to raise strong fledglings. Last year with the drought, the smaller clutches survived well, were able to survive their fledging, and looked stronger and healthier than the 6 and 7 clutches. The 6 & 7 clutches often jumped, and couldn't fly, they were too weak...I am not suggesting that it will ever happen again like last year, but personally I often wish for 5 egg clutches. Its pure luck in a tough year to be able to fledge 7 healthy babies. And then we never know just how many survive the first week. I would never intervene and reduce the number of eggs, but often wish for only 5.