Hi All,
I have a blue tit thats nesting in my garden camera nest box and she looks nearly ready to lay eggs. I’m just a little worried as she seems to be scratching a lot and I think I saw something crawling on her so I imagine she’s got fleas. How bad will these likely be for any babies she has. It’s a brand new box not used before so she likely had them before she started building but I guess there isn’t much I can do given I can’t disturb the nest.
Photo just so you can see her.
Hi and welcome to the forum, It is likely that her itching could be caused by mites and now she is nesting will not have time to use dust bath to alleviate them! Do let us know if you get to see a successful nest!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks, yeah your most likely right. Hopefully she’ll be ok she seems happy enough. They did have 6 fledglings last year but I didn’t have the camera then or atleast I presume it’s the same parents is year, will keep you posted .
Hi we also have a brand new nest box with a camera, so learning a lot about blue tit nest building. We have sometimes seen two birds in there so we are assuming they are a pair. We hope she will start to lay her eggs soon! My question is after this brood has hatched and fledged do I clean out her nest or leave it and trust that the blue tits will make it ready for a potential second brood? Thank you
Hi Taz and welcome to the forum ... Blue Tits will only have one brood but you must leave the nest alone until September when you can then clean it! Some BT nesting facts here ...
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/.../
Thank you that's great to know, I had read on some websites that it is possible for bluetits to have two broods , so that must only be rare exceptions!
I have read that if an early brood fails then it's possible the BT's will go for another brood but don't know how often that would hapoen!