Do I need to clean out barn swallow nest?

A couple of barn swallows built a nest under the roof two years ago and raised a brood of young birds. This year, the birds came back to the nest but eggs kept falling out of the nest. They abandoned the nest since. I am wondering if the bedding material is getting to high inside. They can't make the nest edge taller because it is so close to the roof. Should I clean out the nest for future dwellers? It is pretty high up there and I need to bring in a longer ladder.

I saw some bird houses have the opening for easy cleaning. Does that mean wild birds don't know how to throw out the old beddings?

Oh wow, barn swallows are so preciously few. You are lucky.

At my old property, the barn swallows were happiest when I knocked down the nest completely after they left. If I left the old nest, they would build elsewhere. They would always build anew, to suit their preferences -- often in the same place, but not always.

sometimes they will reuse the old nests, but if you remove it they will rebuild.
i have several nests in my barn. i placed a couple of boards that i attached to several of the roof beams, this helps them with a ledge that they can build their nest off of.
I love watching them in the spring. one will pick up a feather fly up about 20ft and drop it, the other will swoop in and snag it just before it hits the ground, then fly up and drop it.
they play like this for hours.

Thanks. Now I can just knock it down without guilt. It's near 20ft off the ground I am a bit scared to climb that high.

I knocked down the nest weeks ago and it was somewhat intact to tell the structure. The bottom 2/3 was built of clay and straws and looked quite stable. The top 1/3 was mostly straws loosely stacked on the lower part. It seemed the second pair of swallows weren't good at building nest. Hopefully swallows this year will start fresh and raise their babies safely.

May, I sincerely hope your swallows come back and have successful broods. Swallows are magnificent!

they build nests at our shop and some years they seem to be... better parents than other years!!
we do notice, when we go spy on the babies, that some years the bug load seems a lot higher. I have seen the nest literally just swarming with some sort of nasty lice-like things.
they do seem to like the location better than the actual facilities, so hopefully they'll build back an even better home (and eat your bug pests!)