Was having a pretty depressing couple weeks with the Northern Pines. First my old matriarch threw all slugs. The other old female looks to have resorbed her ovulations. Maybe the old male is shooting blanks? Yet it's something I'll keep trying as I like what I got in the past from this trio. Then a tricky female that I've had for years with no luck but last year she threw a large fertile clutch; laid only a few good ones this year. Another female bred to a first time male had only half of her eggs be fertile and so I was sitting with just a handful in the incubator.
But then I watched this other female, also bred to a young male breeding for the first time. Swell up something awful. But I had watched the old girl do that too this spring and she laid all slugs. So I didn't allow myself to get too excited. She seemed to lay around forever after her post lay shed. Doing nothing. But then last night a winter storm was hitting while I was at work. And I find storms have a way of getting snakes moving in one way or another. And sure enough...this is what I found after coming home from work in the wee hours of the morning.
Eleven HUGE eggs! The largest number of fertile eggs I've gotten out of a Pine! So after I did my happy dance I took a picture and off to the incubator went the eggs.
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