Lets see, a story is coming. I started breeding kings in 1964. Lived in SoCal and did nothing special, except feed them more then most. As I and the methods aged some, I build my own cages and added lites. At one period, I kept kings at 84F constant lite. and they reproduced every 11 months. I wrote a paper on circadian rhythm. I produced lots of getula, many pyros and Mexicana.
Oddly, they grew well but normally did not produce until their third year. Also, I had about an 80% reproduction rate with available females. Also, they were not restricted to spring. They did and could reproduce at any month. Early on we experimented with hibernation, using refrigerators. There was a high loss due to dehydration. They did fine, but as soon as you warmed them up, they perished.
Then the onset of hibernation started here in Tucson, with some friends that could not breed a hooker. Until they set their snakes up in this room that was exposed to outside elements and let them get cold in the winter. Several were herp students at the University here. I also experimented with cooling. Benefits were, snakes were predictable(the beginning of recipe keeping) They would reproduce in a predictable period time based on warming. They also produced predictably in their second year. And you had the winter off. pt 1

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