You guys it's so exciting! Our bullsnakes are breeding. We have one clutch and I think the next clutch that's coming is Brad's She is in shed and she is looking massive. I believe this is her pre-lay shed. Let's see Hi chunky. Oh, you're so big Wow. Okay, hang on This is her the lay box it's basically a box that she is going to lay her eggs in and she knows to lay them in here because it's nice and humid, there's a, uh, Combination of eco earth and sphagnum Moss in here. Hi fatty, you look uncomfortable All of this is eggs How many will you have this year? So she, actually her eyes are not cloudy anymore so she has passed the blue phase which means she will be shedding her skin in the next, ah, three- two, three days or so and After that, since this is I believe the pre-lay shed She should lay her eggs about ten days give or take after this shed is complete. So we're getting really close! Let's check back when she gets a little bit closer to laying her eggs. Let's see how she looks We have a shed, ah, you pooped in there really? But she shed so she's about ten days out. Okay, I'm gonna clean that up and then we'll check back Okay Brad, how are you doing today? Do we have any eggies yet? Nope, no eggs, we have food for you. You are huge. Oh my goodness How many eggs are in there? Will you still eat? Let's find out. Oh, yeah, she's totally still gonna eat. Oh! Brad never refuses a meal.
Ed: It means she's close, yeah. Yeah, you didn't want-?
Okay. Those eggs are coming. Okay She is out. It's time for our daily check. Nope You still look fat I can tell right now you haven't laid your eggs yet. Okay, we think Brad is really close. Last night She was looking very uncomfortable and I felt bad. But I think last night might have been the night. So let's take a peek I see her face. She's in her lay box, okay Let's see if we've got eggs yet.
Look at this. She made a mess of all her dirt too. Ed: Oh yeah. She's been in and out for quite a while Yeah, so I'll see her like halfway in, all the way out, all the way in. She just is anxious
Ed: Super uncomfortable. Oh my gosh Last night was the night. Oh, but she's not done yet. Okay, we're gonna- that's adorable
I don't wanna bother her I don't want to bother her. There's a lot of eggs in there guys. Oh my gosh, I think last year she had 19? I can't quite remember you guys will have to check the last year's video because I can't remember off the top of my head. But we'll see how many she has. But we have to give her a few hours to push him out because we don't want to bug her. But that's so exciting! Ed: Alright, so Brad, just laid her eggs Ed: And Emily's trying to sneak down here without getting her reaction because she wants to see how many Brad had. And then Ed grabbed the camera and he's filming anyway, she's done? She got them all out?
Ed: She got them all out. How many did Brad have last year? Ed: We just looked it up
Emily: She had about 21 eggs last- 21 good eggs last year not including any slugs. I don't think she had slugs. Anyway. Oh my gosh, there's so many eggs in there! You must feel so good to get those out. Oh my gosh, okay We got 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25. Is that what you counted? Ed: Yup. 25. Oh my gosh, they all look good. There's not a single slug in there I'm going to have to get everything ready and then we'll pull them out and set them up for incubation That's her biggest clutch she's ever had. That's crazy How is moving Brad going?
Ed: Uh Ed: Amazing.
Emily: Oh. She likes her box. She's comfy.
Ed: I'm not- I'm not gonna- I'm just gonna move all the eggs onto the lid and leave her in there Ed: She uh,
Emily: Since she's so comfy?
Ed: Yeah Ed: I don't mess with her too much.
Emily: Well reach on in there grab those eggs. Ha-ha, she's pushing you away
Ed: push me, here, push that way. Thank you Ed: Don't bite me please Brad you're- you should be really tired after all this work Holy cow, oh there were almost all in one big chunk So for those of you who are concerned bullsnakes in the wild will lay their eggs, and then they leave them forever So, she is not going to miss this big old pile of eggs She was just acting up because she's comfy in there and doesn't want to come out So that's why we're yeah, look she's, like, pushing Ed away with her body That's why we took the eggs up now so we can just leave her be that is the biggest clutch of bull snake eggs That is the biggest clutch of bullsnake eggs I have ever seen. I have ever seen so now we're going to prep these eggs for incubation. And, uh, it's a bit of a process I'll explain it to you, but briefly because we've done this many times on the channel. First, we are going to ready the substrate for the eggs, and we like to use perlite It's an organic perlite from I think Bachmann's? It works really well for snake eggs. You can also use vermiculite or HatchRite. There's many different mediums that you can use for snake and other reptile eggs We just like to use perlite and sometimes vermiculite because they're both the cheapest options and they work just as well as, like, HatchRite But this stuff is like six bucks, I think, for the bag and you don't need a ton of it So it lasts a long time So what we did was we took perlite and we put it in this bowl and then we simply added water to it to the point where When you take a scoop full or a handful and you squeeze it water does not drip from below Because if it does then it's too saturated and it can cause mold issues with the eggs Now what most likely happened was a lot of the water drain to the bottom of this bowl So once we get down there, I bet we'll have to squeeze out some of that extra water But now that we know this is all the right consistency or the right ratio We're gonna take this perlite and put it in these incubation bins, essentially. They have a few holes on the side. I think this is gonna have too many holes You don't want much ventilation for snake eggs because it can dry out the medium very quickly so I think I'll probably end up taking some tape to cover up some of these. But let's put the perlite in. You want a Pretty thick layer of perlite just to make sure that the eggs aren't resting on the bottom of the bin. You want them elevated up slightly so that if there is water that drains to the bottom It doesn't come into contact with the eggs directly Next we're going to make little divots in the perlite to make little resting spots for each egg. Now we have to take these eggs And as you can see here all of these eggs - these two are connected together with mom's natural adhesive and this allows eggs to, if Some are too warm it'll transfer the heat to the others to kind of balance the overall temperature out throughout the entire clutch But in captivity we can provide a consistent temperature level in incubation so there's really no need for these to attach and we do decide to separate the eggs because if one goes bad and it's connected to others it can cause those to go bad as well and then it Just spreads. So we like to separate them just in case something happens to an egg. It's also important that we maintain the exact same orientation For these eggs if they roll then the baby or the embryo can drown in its own fluid right now It's not as important like they could turn a little bit because they are such Freshly laid that the baby has not attached to the side of the eggshell yet, but just to be safe We are going to try to maintain that same orientation as they had. Next I'm going to just push a little bit of the perlite up along the size of the eggs to give them a little extra support. That way they'll be less likely to roll around in incubation and in case they do roll we are going to mark the topmost part Of each egg with a little X beccause that'll tell us what side faces up Okay, the first 12 are done and now we do the same thing for the other half Well here are the eggs! They're all separated, marked, and ready for incubation I can't believe that every single one of these 25 eggs is Fertile. I can tell because they're bright and pearly white if they were Infertile, or what we call a slug, then they would be kind of a yellow color that may be smaller and they kind of have pointed Ends to the shells, but these all look perfect. But now the question is Who's the dad ? So we know that these came from Brad, Who is the mom, which I know her name is kind of confusing But that is the mom but the dad could either be Peanut who is this huge bull snake We paired with Brad this year, or they could be Janet from when we paired her with our male Janet last year It's possible for snakes to retain sperm and use that in the following breeding season We really hope these babies are Brad and Peanut's because I just want to see how big of babies those would be with both Huge parents and Ed brought up a really good point actually, since every single egg is fertile There's a good chance that they are Brad and Peanut's because if she had retained sperm from Janet from last year's breeding season There's more than likely be several if not many slugs in her clutch But since they all look good, things are looking good for Peanut It'll take about 55 to 60 days for these eggs to incubate in the low to mid 80s and boy Is it gonna be a long two months because I can't wait to see these guys hatch but now I'm just going to put them in incubator and mark the day that they were laid and I'll be checking on them frequently and Eventually, the time will come where these guys will hatch Thank you everyone for watching today's exciting video. And what will be even more exciting is the day that these eggs hatch and At which time I will film it We'll make another video so we can all learn once and for all who's the daddy. I'd also like to thank all the wonderful Patreon backers for your amazing support on this channel and we will check back with these eggs in 55 to 60 days.
What if peanut and Janet are the dad? that would be cool