All my houses are on galvanized steel 1 inch pipes.  I clean every spring ensuring no repairs are needed.  Plus they can smell pretty ripe if starlings break open unhatched eggs.  I have the occasional hooded that successfully nest.  No bufflehead that i know of but have seen a pair using someone else's house.

The smaller, cream colored egg is the wood duck.

on the picture of two eggs, which one is the Wood duck

Nesting has begun. A lot of merganser eggs this year.

We put 2 up on the edge of our pond Wednesday. Moved here a year ago but wasn't able to get any in last year. Saw 2 males and 2 females in the pond this morning. Hopefully they find the houses.

56 houses!!! That is absolutely incredible! God bless you. And I personally thank you for your HUGE effort. That is not easy to maintain that many. It's because of people like you and Duckwidow and others that the Wood Duck has made such a remarkable recovery in the last 40 years. Thank you again.

Jim

Put out 31 boxes on Sunday. That brings my total to 56 boxes that i care for.

Saw my first pair of woodies Saturday. Central Wisconsin, Green Lake Co. I have had owls in my boxes, don't know if they nest or just sit in them.

Duckwidow, I'm guessing you put all your houses over water as opposed to in or on trees, am I right? I would strongly suggest to anyone putting up boxes to mount them on galvanized poles over water otherwise you're just asking for problems from racoons or squirrels, unless you hang them in a flooded marsh that has dead trees. Incidentally, have you ever gotten any other species in your houses like Hooded Mergansers or Bufflehead?

Jim

Thanks for the responses.  I understand about dump boxes as I had one house that had 33 membranes in it meaning produced 33 littles ones.  I count my success based on the shriveled up membranes.  Last year just baffles me that I had at least 20 houses that had unhatched eggs where normally I am at 1 or 2.  I check my houses every year with new shavings and all holes caulked up.  Try to replace 3 or 4 old houses every year.  Might as well not put them up if they can get water in them as that acts as a sauna during those warm spells which can also cause unhatched eggs.