Fifteen eggs in one house!!!!

[robndebby]

We did a nest check on June 6 and found a gourd with 10 eggs in it. Never in our 30+ years of having Martins have we ever seen such a thing. Did a check again on June 23, now there are 15 eggs. We looked tonight, 7/4/23, and there are still 15 eggs, no hatchings so we are assuming these are not viable eggs. Do we take them out and throw them away or just leave them alone? They sure made a mighty nice nest! Last year was a bad year for us. We didn't have but a handful of Martins come which is WAY down from our usual amount. This year we are up seven pair, for a total of 21 pairs. Maybe next year will be better.

[brent]

Leave them. I had a nest with 6 eggs. Then more but don’t remember how many. Baffled. Because I could not determine which were laid first I left all of them. The later ones hatched and then I removed those that didn’t hatched. Brent

[Thomabear]

Had the same thing happen this year with 11 eggs. I left them alone as Brent suggested. 5 of them hatched and fledged.