A couple week-ends ago my tortoise partner, Will from San Diego, came up and started on the box turtle fence replacement.
The original box turtle yard was enclosed with grape stakes (ignore the wire fence, that's what I used to keep the turtles away from my work area).
I loved the grape stake look. But over this past year, every so often, one of my neighbors would bring me a box turtle he found walking in our neighborhood. Since box turtles aren't native to my area, it was a pretty good bet that it was an escapee. Try as I might, I just couldn't see where they were getting out. So I knew it was time for a fence replacement.
This is what I saw when I started my demolition:
She was wedged in so tight I had to remove a grape stake to free her.
Finished product:
I put down rectangular cement stepping stones then built the fence on top of them:
This is where the three toe box turtles live (I still have to clean up the demolition junk):
This is where the luteola live:
Luteola:
This is a quarantine pen. Eventually I'll go to my daughter's house and get some palm fronds to cover the hiding area:
The Florida box turtles live here:
And this one is where I put the young turtles that aren't big enough yet to go live in the bigger yards:
There's still quite a bit left to do, but it's all clean up and finish work. At least the animals are safely contained and I can rest easy.
The original box turtle yard was enclosed with grape stakes (ignore the wire fence, that's what I used to keep the turtles away from my work area).
I loved the grape stake look. But over this past year, every so often, one of my neighbors would bring me a box turtle he found walking in our neighborhood. Since box turtles aren't native to my area, it was a pretty good bet that it was an escapee. Try as I might, I just couldn't see where they were getting out. So I knew it was time for a fence replacement.
This is what I saw when I started my demolition:
She was wedged in so tight I had to remove a grape stake to free her.
Finished product:
I put down rectangular cement stepping stones then built the fence on top of them:
This is where the three toe box turtles live (I still have to clean up the demolition junk):
This is where the luteola live:
Luteola:
This is a quarantine pen. Eventually I'll go to my daughter's house and get some palm fronds to cover the hiding area:
The Florida box turtles live here:
And this one is where I put the young turtles that aren't big enough yet to go live in the bigger yards:
There's still quite a bit left to do, but it's all clean up and finish work. At least the animals are safely contained and I can rest easy.