Here in Box1, I have been a little concerned that Andy does not often come to the box with food for Ann. Certainly, he comes nowhere near as often as Ben does to Bella. However, Ben is exceptional and at least Andy comes now and again, so he is still around and taking some sort of interest.
Ann taking the food Andy has brought her.
All Bella's eggs are still in one piece - though not for much longer I suspect.
Ben keeps supplying Bella with food!
What's this? Bella has a piece of eggshell in her beak. One of her eggs must have hatched!
Bella is eating the shell.
This is quite normal behaviour for the first few eggs as it disposes of the shell safely and enables the female bird to replace some of the calcium used to produce the eggshell in the first place.
Here you can just make out a freshly hatched chick which is still inside the other half of the egg. Whether this is the first chick to hatch, or a second is not yet clear!
Now Bella is eating another piece of eggshell.
Ben has come - again with food no doubt - to join the fun.
Two chicks have now hatched out.
Ben is back with more food.
Fifteen minutes have passed since the first egg hatched and there are still only the two hatched eggs.
Ben has brought some food to the nest box but finds Bella is not there.
Bella returns and finds Ben in the nest box.
Ben tries to pass his food to Bella, but she has her beak full also - impasse!
Bella solves the problem by feeding a chick with her food item, . . .
. . . while Ben waits patiently with his food still in his beak.
Bella then takes it from him . . .
. . . and feeds it to a chick while Ben departs - presumable to get more!
Remember that at this stage there are only two chicks and they have never eaten before. so I can imagine that she might be having a little difficulty getting Ben's food serving down them!
Finally, Bella settles down on the eggs (and chicks) again.
Another piece of eggshell. Whether this comes from a third egg hatching, or is a piece that was not cleared after the first two eggs hatched is not certain, but I suspect the former.
Ben continues to work his socks off finding food for Bella and the chicks.