It's just after 4pm and Joy is holding something in her beak. It looks like a piece of eggshell. Joy's chicks must have started to hatch!
As I predicted, Joy's eggs are the first to hatch, though they have started a day earlier than I expected.
It took Dave a little while to cotton on - so Joy went out for herself to find some food for the newly hatched chick.
The first chick is already asking for food - you can see its gape here.
Nearly two hours have passed and a second chick must have hatched. Here is Joy eating another piece of egg shell.
There has still been no sign of Dave. I hope nothing has happened to him!
Ah! Here's Dave at last. Although you cannot see it here, he has some food for her but as she has some already in her beak, she cannot take it from him, so he flies out again!
In less than a minute, he is back again and this time she manages to take it in spite of the fact that she stil already has food in her beak.
Incidentally, changing the subject somewhat, see how different the blue feathers on the top of their heads look. You can easily recognise which is the female and which the male.
More food for the chicks - good old Dave!
A few minutes later, Dave comes into the box with some food only to find that Joy isn't there. He clearly doesn't know what to do. He soon flies out again with the food still in his beak.
See what a small food item he is bringing the chicks. Somehow he knows what they need.
A couple of minutes later he is back - but this time Joy is there to take the food from him.
Ten minutes later he is back with another feed.
It's now just after 7pm but Dave is still regularly bringing food to the chicks.
At this late hour, another chick decides to hatch! Joy eats the shell again as usual. Three of her chicks have now hatched out.
The three hatchlings.
When the system closed down at about 7.30pm, Dave was still bringing food for the chicks.