Laying eggs--question

[LIttleGreys]

I just moved (3 days ago) my turtles to their brand new outdoor enclosure. My big 3 toed girl seems like she is in heaven out there! Before I adopted her in the fall, she lived in a 20 gallon aquarium for years, so I was so excited to get her moved outside.
Anyway, to get to the point!!........I was just looking out there and she is definitely nesting. I am keeping an eye to see if she lays eggs. I had hoped to incubate them, but don't have an incubator yet. I do have the directions for the homemade incubator, but I am wondering if it would just be better to leave them outside? I live in PA, right now it is mid 70s in the day, but can drop to 60 to 50s at night. Will the eggs be OK? I am assuming the wild turtles manage, so perhaps these will too?
The guy who had her before me said she did lay eggs before and that he incubated them (I'm not sure exactly how or at what temp, he is a snake person, so maybe they do it different, I don't know!) but they never hatched.
What do you think? Leave them alone and hope for babies in August??

 

[ZippyButter]

I just moved (3 days ago) my turtles to their brand new outdoor enclosure. My big 3 toed girl seems like she is in heaven out there! Before I adopted her in the fall, she lived in a 20 gallon aquarium for years, so I was so excited to get her moved outside.
Anyway, to get to the point!!........I was just looking out there and she is definitely nesting. I am keeping an eye to see if she lays eggs. I had hoped to incubate them, but don't have an incubator yet. I do have the directions for the homemade incubator, but I am wondering if it would just be better to leave them outside? I live in PA, right now it is mid 70s in the day, but can drop to 60 to 50s at night. Will the eggs be OK? I am assuming the wild turtles manage, so perhaps these will too?
The guy who had her before me said she did lay eggs before and that he incubated them (I'm not sure exactly how or at what temp, he is a snake person, so maybe they do it different, I don't know!) but they never hatched.
What do you think? Leave them alone and hope for babies in August??

You could leave these eggs alone in the nest. I would build a barrier around the nest to prevent predators to dig at the nest to steal these eggs. Use some 2x4 and chicken wire. Also I hope you don't have any ants around there. Or you could carefully excavate the eggs and bring them inside to incubate. Get some vermiculite at any warehouses, plastic food container, wet the vermiculite in the container, make sure it's not soggy wet. Put these eggs in the container with vermiculite. You can buy a commercial incubator or have one made at home. The temperature should be around 80 to 85 degree F, with humidity around 80. If the condition is right, these eggs could hatch in 65 to 70 days.
Good luck and let us know what you are going to decide to do.

Minh