14th day of incubation

Second week of incubation.

External appearance

Now the light beam is directed ventrodorsally. Blood vessels can be seen in one side, near the end of the egg (top left in the picture)

 

Now the light beam is directed latero-laterally. The blood vessels can be seen in the lower part of the egg (bottom right in the picture)

When I made this picture I didn't rotate the egg. I leaned it on the thumb while keeping the egg in a vertical position. It seems that the embryo is forming near one of the poles of the egg, ventrally and lateral. I made a mistake not marking the top of the egg. Now I am not sure if the egg could have been slightly  rotated without noticing while handling it to take the pictures. It shouldn't be a problem for the embryo but now I am not sure if this is the position where the embryo started developing.  I will mark them for future pictures. I will also mark the eggs of the second clutch (wich I can already palpate) to compare the development.

Regarding egg handling, it is interesting what  A.C.Highfield wrote in  "Practical Encyclopedia of keeping and breeding Tortoises and Freshwater turtles" pg31.  He made experiments gently turning eggs in mid incubation. It didn't affect the egg viability, although some tortoises hatched turned.
He considers that it is a myth that you have to collect the eggs exactly in the same position they were buried. It is later, when the embryo is forming, that it is more suceptible to movement and rotation. 

I have made a quick search in internet about the effects of rotation of chelonian eggs during incubation but I didn't find any specific study. There is plenty of advice against rotating them and embrionary failures attributed to rotation but I couldn't find an specific study about it. I will have a look at the references in the books I have home.

I believe that the Clemmys eggs are in a stage where I have to be very careful when hadling them, and I do not intend to rotate them,  but it is good to know that it does not always mean the death of the tortoise.

7 days of incubation

It's 7 days since the incubation started. Externally they look like that

With the light of a torch I don't see any change since last week. The other eggs look the same.

First eggs 2014

After some cool and rainy weeks, Saturday was the first summer day of the year, with temperatures over 30ºC . Around 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the female was in the land area. I quickly moved away. If she noticed I was looking at her in that moment, she would flie away to the water. She always does. I had to go and when I came back at 9, she was already nesting. With this female, once nesting, she doesn´t mind being observed. In fact some years ago I took very close pictures of her while she was nesting.  
She nested under some plants, as usual.

 

 

I left her digging and I came back at midnight. She was still in the same place and I went to bed.
Next morning I was surprised to see how well hidden the nest was. If I had not seen the female nesting, I wouldn´t have seen it.

Picture of the place next morning

The same  picture  showing where the nest was

The female gets under the plants and then starts digging. The same behavior is shown in most of the pictures of previous years. This is why the plants look intact when she has finished. 

I wonder if this sort of plants, with a fast and invasive growth, would have destroyed the nest.

But there is no chance because I put the three eggs to the incubator

I will take pictures each week during the incubation to see the development . This first picture is 9 hours after the eggs were laid. 

12 hous later, at 30ºC, it seems that a white patch appears on the upper surface of the eggs.

Hopefully in about 45 days there will appear something like this