It's egg laying time!

[Catherine]

It will be at least 9-10 weeks before anything hatches. There is a real variation in gestation time. So the first clutch, Pete's eggs are due in April. Mike's eggs should hatch around mid May.
It will be crazy and exciting. I will have "boxes" of new hatchlings all over my kitchen. I like to keep them quiet for the first two weeks until they shed. It is only after that event that they will start to eat.

The hatching can take days, so we might need a big pot of coffee.
They cut a hole in the egg first and breath air for a day before they even consider leaving the egg. The first thing they do is disappear into the moss and stay hidden for days. I watched one baby leave an egg and crawl around the egg box and then climb back into the egg. I guess he wasn't ready to face the world.

Right now I am waiting for Aurora to lay her eggs. I think soon, but with the weather so bad later would be better. I have to take the eggs to the incubator and the snow is so deep and the storm so bad that I wouldn't want to risk it. She hasn't started yet so there will be no eggs today. It takes many hours to lay a clutch of 18 eggs. No wonder the girls look so tired afterwards. Mike slept all day and still looks tired.