As I posted before, my Hermann's Tortoise laid two clutches of eggs awhile back. They were laid about two weeks apart and consisted of 4 eggs each for a total of 8 eggs. I imagine that laying more than one clutch really is a sort of double indemnity for the species. Multiple clutches probably help the species survive not only because there are more eggs and thus more chances for new tortoises but because the clutches can be laid in different places and thus not all eggs would be detected at once by any predator.
As for the eggs my female laid, as it turned out, only 1 egg in each clutch wound up being fertile (this was the first time for her and the male, and while he is a bit young for a breeder, he is obviously endowed). One of the eggs, the one that was fertile from the first clutch, hatched on July 29th and I expected the one from the second clutch to hatch about 2 weeks after the other one. Over this past weekend, I was somewhat disappointed to see the egg had cracked and some of the inner membrane was sticking out somewhat precariously. I left it in the incubator anyway, hoping this was done by the tortoise moving around inside because it was ready to hatch even though I did not expect that for more than a week. On Tuesday, I took another look and the egg had hatched, half of the shell demolished and kicked away and the other half complete and still laying atop the tortoise hatchling. When I looked again last night, the baby tortoise had crawled away from the shell and buried itself in the substrate within the hatching chamber of the incubator. So there had been nothing to worry about after all.
It is nice to see these hatchlings made it from me caring for the adults properly, to fertilization, through egg laying, through my digging them up and putting them into the incubator, all the way to hatching. They can now live a long time, probably up to 40-50 years if not more. It is doubtful I will be around that long to care for them so, I am hopeful my son and daughter will learn how to care for them properly and that they will keep them. My daughter helps with their care now, as does my wife, feeding them often and y sons takes somewhat of an interest in them. They are very easy to care for if you take care to reliably supply them with a few specific requirements for their well being and if you make certain, while mowing the backyard grass, to keep an eye open for them. (No the babies will not be allowed to roam the backyard as they would be able to escape though just about any crack or hole in the fences or get picked off by just about any bird; only our larger juvenile and adult torts get that outdoors roaming privilege during the nicer weather.)
All the best,
Glenn B
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