Window of opportunity

[ZEROPILOT]

Very interesting, Craig.
Of the dozens of Redfoot eggs I've excavated, it seems to me that they always touched one another. But also that they were packed by soil. No pocket of air. In fact the soil was always wet or damp and packed in all around the eggs so that when an egg was removed, a perfect indentation in the shape of that egg was left.
Maybe in my soil then eggs left in my pen would fail? Maybe. It's all pretty interesting.
The eggs touching thing seems like it might be valid. Because my incubator with eggs not touching is hatching babies laid the same day, weeks apart.

 

[Anyfoot]

Very interesting, Craig.
Of the dozens of Redfoot eggs I've excavated, it seems to me that they always touched one another. But also that they were packed by soil. No pocket of air. In fact the soil was always wet or damp and packed in all around the eggs so that when an egg was removed, a perfect indentation in the shape of that egg was left.
Maybe in my soil then eggs left in my pen would fail? Maybe. It's all pretty interesting.
The eggs touching thing seems like it might be valid. Because my incubator with eggs not touching is hatching babies laid the same day, weeks apart.

Your discription of the eggs in ground is exactly as I see mine. I have to dig around the nest so not to break them when I pull them from the mud, the suction created with the egg sat in a perfect wet indentation is very strong if you just try to pull the eggs in an upward motion. Maybe my substrate is too hard so they have to urinate a lot so excavation is easier, a bi-product of that results in a compact nest, maybe all eggs in my ground will be duds through lack of air flow.
I have top soil for substrate, do I need to add sand to break it up and stop compaction of the substrate. Thoughts anyone.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My outdoor substrate is a fine compost and dark, rich soil from a decade or more of decomposing mulch,etc.
Covered by fresh mulch.
Just what I would imagine a forest floor would look like.
Minus leaves.

 

[Anyfoot]

Just dug the eggs up and opened them up. No babies, but I think they were potentially fertile originally. Most had something in them that could only be described as masses of white jelly, some looked like they had veins in them and a couple were just runny liquid like you would expect from duds.
The stench was off the scale, and the adults were trying to eat them.
So from this experience I would say air flow is crucial for development as you suggest Mark.
What is confusing me is i put 10 eggs in there, 2 blew up a while back and I've just got 9 out .

 

[Anyfoot]

First time I've seen this thread. My first impression when I started reading and saw how you buried them, was that there was no egg chamber with air around the eggs. Every good nest I have seen is dug and a chamber is created. The eggs inside are all touching, but no dirt falls in around the eggs and the chamber is plugged with a wet plug of mud the female makes keeping the chamber "open" around the eggs. It seems to me the eggs would suffocate if not surrounded by air.

Just dug a clutch of 9 up. It was quite obvious there is a chamber in there.