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Sometime around the end of April, I came home to find a large box turtle laying eggs at right at my back door. I thought it was really cool, as I have never witnessed something like that. Ive always had a thing for terripins. I wondered how this animal had got into my yard when it was too large to fit under the fence and why it had chosen this particular spot. It was probably the worst spot in the yard because the ground is so hard that grass cant even grow. Maybe she just couldnt hold it anymore. Me and the turtle watched each other for a couple of hours until it was too dark to see. She tirelessly dug a hole with one back leg, alternating, left, right, left. Then, plop, plop, plop. She dropped 8 grape sized eggs and began carefully covering them up. She seemed to have a slight smile after laying the eggs. Maybe she was relieved, I imagine carrying eggs inside you is like having to go to the bathroom really bad. Maybe she had some satisfaction in completing part of the life cycle, ya know that whole circle of life thing? Yeah, Im humming the Lion King song as I type this.

At first I thought it best to leave the eggs and let nature do its thing. I put some stones around the are to mark it and told the kids to not to disturb it. After about a month, the ground hardened like concrete and an ant mound formed right next to the nest. damn.

After doing a bit of research I decided to dig them up and incubate them. Some sources said that as few as 1 in 100 survive in the wild.  50 to 70 days, with specific temperature and humidity. The temperature determines the sex, like crocodiles. ok, thats not hard. So I excavated them carefully with a kitchen spoon. Well, more than 70 days later and further reading, I realised that I had made a mistake. The eggs have a tiny air bubble in them that the turtles use to breathe, turning them can drown the turtles in thier shell. I felt bad. I tried to do something good. I thought that I had killed them.

I stopped checking on them was going to through the eggs away. Then to my surprise, one day I wake up to some baby turtles! 4 baby turtles! Ah Ah Ah! 2 were stillborn and 2 didnt hatch at all. so I guess statistically, thats not bad. Well, I was a ninja turtle kid so, I named them appropriately. There starting to eat and show different personalities. Ill keep them through the winter and release them next year. This is a long read I know.

I loved reading that, thank you.

Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the turtles of war!

Any chance for some pics? 

:)

Very nice. Got excited when some of the lizards in our backyard laid eggs. Was afraid they wouldn't hatch w/all the rain we've had, but a few weeks ago I was greeted by tiny little lizards darting about. :)

You know, if you keep one of them and raise it, you will have the rare good fortune of a pet that may well outlive you!

ER - glad you did, that makes me happy!

Java - is that merely a shakespear reference, the title of an actual ninja turtles episode,  a clever pun... Or all 3?

AOT - ill post some pics when i figure out how to get them from my cell phone to the computer.

Pacman - do you know what kind of lizards?

Indiana - No! Im taking them with me! Ha! It would be cool to be able to hand down a living thing to the next gen. Maybe even the gen after that. I may decide to keep at least one. Theyre low maintanence and I hate the thought of them being run over.

Just swifts. (Blue Bellies, Fence Lizards, Wood Lizards, Spiny Lizards. They have a a lot of different names.)

Hope they make it, compadre!