Manouria Emys Emys 2015 lay

[tortadise]

Big mama did it again for this year. She's getting better and better at nesting and ova depositing. She laid 42 eggs Sunday morning. Covered the nest quite well. They're in the "egg pot" same method I used last year and hatch 100% success without gnats, and eggs caving in. In about 64-68 days should see some little browns hatching out,

 

[mike taylor]

Awesome !

 

[tortadise]

Awesome !

Yep been crazy with the eggs up here. Had 9 star eggs laid few days before that, some little Redfoots climbed out the soil in the greenhouse, 15 more leopard eggs, some Hingeback eggs. What a summer so far.

 

[sendie]

 

[bouaboua]

Sure is a bountiful summer, keep them coming, eggs, hatchlings. All photo are welcome.

 

[tortadise]

I noticed a few eggs left in the nest. I thought she was done. But I didn't want to disturb her. She did not like take kindly to me excavating the nest. So awesome how protective they instinctively are. She rammed and bit me numerous times as I dug up and failed to find the left behind eggs. I'll just let him hatch naturally in the nest.

Here she is checking me out and not being happy with nest excavation. Truly the most intelligent species of chelonian I've worked with.




So I covered it back up and let it be. She's finally satisfied with her nest. It's about 26" thick and a good 6' circle. This was a few days ago. I'll snap a newest one today. She can barely sneak up on the top it's so high and big. I placed about 35 bags of mulch and 6 cubes of peat moss. She's used about all of it. Of I course though you get settlement and compaction ounce those substrates are placed. So it condenses a lot. When I was excavating the nest it was extremely difficult using my hands. But a shovel would not of been wise.

 

[jaizei]

I noticed a few eggs left in the nest. I thought she was done. But I didn't want to disturb her. She did not like take kindly to me excavating the nest. So awesome how protective they instinctively are. She rammed and bit me numerous times as I dug up and failed to find the left behind eggs. I'll just let him hatch naturally in the nest.

Here she is checking me out and not being happy with nest excavation. Truly the most intelligent species of chelonian I've worked with.

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View attachment 140206

So I covered it back up and let it be. She's finally satisfied with her nest. It's about 26" thick and a good 6' circle. This was a few days ago. I'll snap a newest one today. She can barely sneak up on the top it's so high and big. I placed about 35 bags of mulch and 6 cubes of peat moss. She's used about all of it. Of I course though you get settlement and compaction ounce those substrates are placed. So it condenses a lot. When I was excavating the nest it was extremely difficult using my hands. But a shovel would not of been wise.
View attachment 140207

Have you had emys hatch in ground before?

 

[tortadise]

Have you had emys hatch in ground before?

Nope. But should be cool to see. They hatch in 64-68 days. So if summer stays warm and an early fall blows in, it should still be ok. What I have found is that this species and phayrei nest during the hottest parts of the dry season. I actually got some information of a program in Bangladesh that our organization is funding. They found a phayrei nest a few days ago and probed with a temp data collector. The outside ambient temps are 101 with ambient humidity of average 85%. Typically she has laid in August-September which would leave the temperatures not suitable for proper development. So I'd be curious to see how many were left in the nest and how many come out. Especially in relation to the ones being incubated outside of the nest, perhaps the nest ones will emerge quicker. We shall see Cameron, we shall see. This species never gets old.

 

[tortadise]

Mountain oh' mountain nest. Haha. Almost to the top of the hide.

 

[qgm]

awesome.
How heavy is she?

 

[SteveW]

Mountain oh' mountain nest. Haha. Almost to the top of the hide.

View attachment 140318

Now that's a nest.

 

[tortadise]

65 days today. I checked the eggs lSt night nothing yet. Hopefully they will start hatching and crawl out. We've had a cooler summer than last year and past years. So I'm thinking these will be high 60 to mid 70 days to hatch. Fingers still crossed. They're quite tough to hatch.

 

[teresaf]

Nothing yet?

 

[Jacqui]

Babies yet?

 

[tortadise]

Nope. I'm afraid I may have gotten them too wet. This year is a bunk of my doing unfortunately. Super sensitive this species is.

Babies yet?