Hosp question

[Buckeye658793]

I have been fighting a male hosp that has been around my colony for about 2 weeks shot at him and missed him several times with pellet gun and he became very skittish well today his luck ran out and he has been eliminated I lowered the gourd rack and cleaned out the hosp nest it had 3 eggs in it my question is will the female stick around or will she leave I have never seen her.By the way my colony now has at least 15 to 20 birds spending the night and I have 2 nests with eggs.

[John Miller]

Most (not all) of the time the female will abandon. I think will be the case as you have removed a nest with eggs. Sometimes she hangs back and just immediately attracts a new male, but I think this more likely earlier in the nesting cycle. Remove the male first when you can, and then many times the female will abandon.