With the arrival of the Spring season there is some level of disappointment when eggs don’t hatch and squabs die in the nest. Not including disease the primary reason this happens is that for one or both parents this is the first time they have had a nest.

Sometimes with that first round or two some pairs just don’t have the right inclination to properly set on the eggs and squabs and provide proper feeding despite the fanciers best efforts to provide good loft conditions.

With practice they will improve, just give them time to figure it out…but another huge factor in this is that some impatient guys just keep sticking their hand into the nest to check the progress. This does nothing to help but only increase the likelihood that the parents will abandon the eggs or not set on them right and the eggs don’t get incubated properly.

My advice is: don’t. Resist the temptation to be a mother hen. Eggs only really need to be checked once and that is at about day 10 of the 18 days of incubation.

If the eggs are becoming darker in color then there is a very good chance the eggs are doing fine.

To check this, at the 10^th day, hold the eggs up to a bright light. If they appear clear then they are sterile. Sometimes one might be clear and the other getting the proper darker color. Simply replace the clear egg with a wooden egg and allow the other to hatch and let things follow their natural course.

Just keep a “hands off” policy for your nests and barring disease the young pairs will figure it out.