Finally! Kingsnakes are Hatching!

 This morning I was stoked when I checked the incubator, as I do about twice a day when something is due to hatch. I was greeted by two normal eastern kingsnakes pipping. While they are only about 6 days late, I have to admit I was starting to get nervous. I honestly expected them on the 5th or 6th of July. But as we know nature has her own clock and there is nothing we can do to speed it up or even slow it down. I am happy to see these two though. I'm looking for some albinos, but only normals so far. 

But there is quite a few eggs left to pip. These were from Apollo x Hestia. Mom and dad are both het albino so we should expect about 25% of the hatchlings to be albino. Nothing beats the excitement of seeing eggs hatch whether they are the target morph or normal animals. All of them are absolutely beautiful. Sure morphs are cool looking, but nature's paint jobs are gorgeous in their own right. 

If you have been following along, I was pretty worried about this clutch due to the small size of the eggs. She seemed to lay these guys a little early since they were still connected by a thread like material. There was like 4 eggs that either were bad from the jump or have went bad during the incubation process. But there is still a dozen or more that look good and will hopefully hatch out some gorgeous babies.

Breeding kingsnakes is not for the impatient. If you start with babies you have about three years of just caring for them until they get to breeding size. Then you have to pair them and hope they make a love connection. Then you have to wait for the female to lay. Once you make it to the laying you feel like you're pretty successful. But after collecting the eggs you still have another two months of just waiting and keeping temps within range.

Even after hatching, the work is not quite complete. Some baby kingsnakes can be slow to start eating. Eastern kingsnakes can be tough, but usually not too much trouble.And once you get them started, you're typically in the clear. So stay tuned as I will continue posting updates on the hatching as well as the hatchlings of this special clutch.