I would say I have mostly good news, but some bad news as well.

I have 90 good eggs and about 30 or 40 bad eggs, from thirteen female red throat Eastern Indigos. The egg-laying in my colony is almost over. One more female will lay in the next few days, but there are only five or six eggs in her. So I could have 90-something good eggs. I am sure that some of these won't make it. I always lose some during the incubation. If 80 percent of these hatch, I will consider myself lucky.

One of my females couldn't pass any of the eggs, even with my help. I found her dead in the cage just a few days after she was supposed to lay. I quickly cut her open and removed the eggs which looked like they were live eggs, but none were alive by the time I got to them.

For some unusual reason, I was able to push the first offending egg out easily after she was dead, but I couldn't do it when she was alive. It may have been the culprit for the egg-binding, being longer and deformed looking. It was older looking and fully hardened inside and out, making me wonder if it was in her from an earlier year. She had not mated until this year though. The remaining 10 eggs, higher up, were all supple and new.

If any of you have actually seen an Indigo snake egg being laid, you will understand why a hardened one would be more difficult for the female to pass. The soft, supple eggs get pinched significantly down the middle while they are exiting, making it easier for the female snake to get them out.

Good luck to the rest of you, Robert Bruce.

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