Well thought I would share my recent adventures in cornsnake breeding! 
(Gotta do something to pass the time until first pip!)
Hermes was the only male involved in breeding any females this year. He is a striped normal possible het for amel.
Pairing #1: Hermes x Aphrodite, she is either a normal het motley, or a hypo het motley. She had 10 eggs, which turned out very large comparing to my other corn eggs. About twice the size of the other corn eggs, and half the size of my king eggs. I plan on getting 50% normal striped motley from this pairing, and 50% normal het striped. Of course there could be hidden recessives on either side, and I will learn about those perhaps from this and the other clutches. These eggs are due in 15 days!!!
Aphrodite has gone off her food and is swelling quite a bit in the lower 1/3rd. I believe she is also getting ready to shed. I plan on putting an egg-laying box in with her once she sheds.
Pairing #2: Hermes x Athena. Athena is an Anery Striped and laid 6 eggs and 6 slugs. One egg went bad after ten or so days. The five remaining should all be normal striped het anery. I thought she was getting ready to double clutch, but she ate yesterday, and is blue today, with only yesterday's meal as the obvious lumps I'm hoping that she's "decided" not to double clutch. Due in 17 days!
Pairing #3: Hermes x Calypso. Calypso is a beautiful reverse okeetee who is having a LOT of health problems and I am very much afraid I am going to lose her. Both her and Aphrodite got mouth rot after laying their eggs. Aphrodite after a lot of TLC bounced back fairly quickly, but Calypso is looking very poorly indeed. She laid 21 eggs, and 20 are still good. I have my fingers crossed that she will recuperate. Her mouth rot is better, but she still is lethargic and unwilling to eat. This pairing should prove out whether or not Hermes is het amel. If he is about 10 of the eggs should be amelanistic. All will be het striped unless she has the motley or striped gene. The egg box got jostled pretty badly and all the eggs were sort of thrown around... I tried to put them back but am uncertain if they are all back in the same position as before. 
Calypso shows no sign of double clutching, which is good. This clutch is due in 19 days!
Next year, if they are large enough to breed, I'll add another amelanistic and an anerythristic to my proposed breedings, and perhaps one other normal het for amel. I think that will put me up to capacity.
I've learned that breeding snakes is a LOT of fun (if you have patience) BUT... you have to have the mice to feed those little snakey mouths... and my mouse colony is self supporting. I need to be able to figure out the capacity of my mouse house, and that will limit my capacity on breeding the snakes.
-----
~Sasheena
