Found this interesting pattern of icicles the other day.

I thought I would answer your question about the birds here.

We had them together in a cage and they had a nest box hanging on the outside. She hardly ever went in it but he played in it all the time. She would lay an occasional egg but not in the box, always in the bottom of the cage and then it would get cracked or smashed. She started pulling feathers out of him and the back of his head was bare so I decided to seperate them so his feathers could grow back. I took the nest box off since it was not accomplishing anything and pushed their cages together so they could still be together. The next day she laid one egg in the bottom of the the cage and seemed taken with it so I left it in there. Over the next week she laid 2 more and has been sitting on them now for about 3 weeks. I talked to the pet shop guy in Jasper who used to raise cockatiels and he said the reason she never used the nest box is probably because it was too small. It is homemade and is not as big as the official one he had for sale. He said she was probably pulling his feathers to make a nest. I don't know if they will hatch and I kinda hope they don't. I am not looking forward to the work it takes to raise baby birds or the heartache you get when it doesn't work. The pet shop guy said she would regurgitate the seed and feed them herself but after about 2 weeks we should start handfeeding them to make them tame. The lady I got the birds from said that she has laid eggs before and they hatched but they never lived. Since I seperated them the male has become much friendlier, I guess he is looking to us for affection since she is not around. The cats get that look in their eye every once in a while but we try to watch them close. The dogs want to chase them when they are flying around but the dogs are in the pen mostly so that is not a problem