Yay for a happy ending! I once kept a female Cardinal overnite in an old birdcage I had after it flew into one of my windows. The next morning I opened the door to the cage set it down in the backyard and after a minute or so it flew out and away! Cardinals are my favorite backyard birds!!! 

Cardinals are my fave backyard bird too!    I love that they are the last ones at the feeder at night, and that the male cardinal presents the seed to his female in  nesting season..or is it all year round?    Love the sound and the sight of them.   

And just think Donna, one fifth of the posts are yours!!!  Keep 'em comin' girl! 

Why, yes!!!

 

 OMG..This is true!  You go, girl!

http://tinyurl.com/4yp35t2

Tell me these birders aren't dedicated!!

Great story in the NY Times, and that gull is one gorgeous gull.  Look at that beak and those legs!    Gotta love birders!

 

Oh my!....get over it honey....got another year to go, and maybe Mr. T. will reappear!   (They are all such cuties   

I have to agree with you chlosmom!

We have a very active wasps' nest in the shed - I do not go in there... I send Rod. Stood on a wasps' nest as a child and am therefore a tad wary of these critters.

So here's the thing: We do NOT want to just kill them - esp if they are useful as pollinators, predators etc. But we would like to get them out of the shed. Not sure of the species, but they make those amazing "paper" nests, all spun around and symmetrical.

Does anyone have sound, practical information and advice for us?

Thanks so much!!

SOunds  like a bad experience with wasps as a child, but do you have pictures of the "paper"nest?   Sounds like some good pictures? 

Slainte!

Hard to believe that Shaky was only 48 when Yarak was born.   

Is that Karay  (carrie) spelled backwards?  Just asking.....

It is a lot of work and time with our chronic egg layers.  That is interesting that Chewey is not incubating the eggs.   Winnie was such a good hen.     I could actually feel the heat she was giving off to the eggs when I could get her out of the cage.  She developed the "brood  patch"  where her feathers on the chest thinned so she could provide more body heat to the eggs.

It is not an easy time for us, but it is even tougher on the conures.    Good luck, and keep me posted.  I will try  to help you through it as best I can.

Poor Chewey!  Poor you!  It's tough on both of you.
    

Of course, if I could spell "Angel", it might have been more pertinent.

Saw that but didn't want to say! Just sayin!! Bobbie Angle!! 

 

Editor's note: Do NOT rely on the Spell Check!!

Hi Bobbie...know it's late, but AIN't you sum kind of  Editor?

Sorry Donna - I work crazy hours in summer time.  One thing I thought of after i posted earlier, is Winnie bird  craved peanuts when she was in egg laying mode.   She only ate the shell part  --- not really the nut part.    I always knew when she was in egg laying mode when she craved peanut shells. When I saw her going after the peanut shells I was not happy!     And Cheerios and Wheat Thins.      If Chewey is into this ...and from the sounds of it , she it, she will go all year round.  It doesn't matter time of year.    Winnie was the aggressor as far as soliciting...actually she was quite the seductress from Doc -bird (the male).  she would grab his beak and try to regurgitate food...a bonding  thing.   (They had separate cages and were never together except for some guided play time).   Their cages were next to each others' though. 

I will have to pull out all my charts, but Winnie had certain periods that she laid those eggs, but it was almost year round.      It is a trying time, but all of those birds around Chewey are stimulating her, plus the ideal conditions..I'm sure.      It's been three years since I lost Winnie, but keep asking me  the questions; I'm sure I was through the same things, and I can answer your questions.
  Good luck to you and Chewey.   
 

I shall remain hopeful for S2 to return to the wild and live out her life in freedom! 

Yeah, I second that emotion!

They lay like clock work Donna.  One egg every three days, once in a while it goes to four days.   The clutch size is usually three eggs, but sometimes it was four.  A few times when Winnie got in "egg-binding" trouble it was more than 4 days.    

Limiting light does not work..trust me..   Removing the eggs or replacing the eggs with wooden decoys does not work ... trust me.    These are the equivalent of "old wives tales".    They lay because the condtions are ideal, and their hormones are raging.  In other words - they are "fat had happy".  Winnie loved Doc (my 22 year male bird).  She was fat and happy and  conditions were ideal.  I tried everything, and nothing could stop her egg laying.  Trust me.  I call Winnie my  "ten thousand dollar bird".   Not a joke.    

Keep Chewey's calcium high.     A few times Winnie got egg bound and I had to take her to have the egg "expressed"  at the vet's office.  She had Oxytocin injections a few times, and two times she had to have the egg "collapsed"   and "extracted".  and  she had to be put under.    Winnie was victim of her hormones.   I had many races to the vet's office over the years.   When she was laying eggs, I had to keep her warm and the humidity high.  Many times, I kept a space heater AND  a warm air humidifier/vaporizer by her cage  when i knew she was laying eggs.    Warmth and humidity are important for egg laying -- especially during the colder months .   None of WInnie's eggs were fertile by the way.       There was never any activity between WInnie and Doc...and although I suspected Doc was  male, I didn't find out for sure until the week that Winnie died.  

In the last few years of her life she was receving injections of  Lupron -- a drug used on humans for various reasons that  boggle my mind.  It worked  somewhat for her.   In the end, we had her egg laying under control, but heart disease killed her.  

Keep Chewey well fed, and  high calcium.    At 20, Chewey would be considered a "senior" bird as my Winnie was, and my Doc-bird is.     They have special needs and dietary needs.

Dr Laura Wade -- an avian specialist in Lancaster, NY  (suburb of Buffalo) is wonderful.       Rochester, sadly, lacks any avian vets, but Buffalo  has a few, and Dr. Wade is superb.  She is also giving in her time, and if you contact her, she will share her wealth of expertise and knowledge.    I have her email if you would like it.

You can expect at least three eggs and possibly four with this first clutch.  Keep us posted on how she does.  

My Winnie bird was a great little hen.  She sat on those eggs and wouldn't leave them.  I used to surround her with all of her favorite foods as she sat on those eggs on the bottom of her cage.  She loved Cheerios when she was laying eggs.  And for  some strange reason, peanuts only when she was laying eggs; otherwise it was cashews.     Lots of sweet potatoes, pasta, salmon....her favorite, and  Wheat Thins crackers...  I used to give her Minute Maid Orange juice (with calcium and vitamin D)  ...Doc and Winnie learned to drink out of a glass as babies... and yogurt and Ben and Jerries Ice cream.  (It was a calcium source).    Actually, my birds eat anything that we do..with the exception of avocados and tomatoes.   Their favorite treat was a half of  a peanut M and M...which Dr. Wade always said she "didn't want to hear"  as chocolate is toxic to birds, but my birds crave chocolate, and in tiny portions, have never harmed them.    Their favorite treats were pizza and chicken wings.    Pizza was fine.  As for chicken wings?  I told them it was "squirrel" (otherwise it was cannabilism!)   They were not really interested in the skin...just the meat and the bones and the marrow in the bone.   I don't even like chicken wings, but would buy some just to skin and microwave to sterilize and feed to the birds.   To watch them  bite into those bones and extract the marrow!   Amazing.      Conures eat everything.  Give Chewey a healthy, wide, diet, and she will be fine.

If Chewey is 20,  you have been doing a find job of keeping her healthy.  Have you had her since she was a baby?  

Good luck and keep me posted.  
Margaret  

Thank you Patti and ginha for inspiring met to try to attrach the hummers again!

Thanks, Donna. The picture I remember looks like the third one you found, only I think there was a little less shadow from the main cam in it.  But it was a glorious picture.  These are nice too!  Thank you.

Here's one from Kris G, could this be the one?

I am saving them all.  Kris' picture looks more like the one I remember.    Thank you, Donna and Kris. The picture was always a wonderful morning start on the home page from last August to whenever it was taken down.   Thanks!

Thanks, Donna. The picture I remember looks like the third one you found, only I think there was a little less shadow from the main cam in it.  But it was a glorious picture.  These are nice too!  Thank you.