Octomom

Eleanor finally laid her eggs! Four days after the first testing site, she laid her eggs in almost the exact same spot as the first testing site. I was beginning to get worried about her. The weather changed this week, and one of the nights got into the upper 40s, and she didn't move from the spot she was digging for a whole day. Yesterday, it warmed up considerably, and she was roaming about most of the day. She started digging again around 4 or 5 pm, and I went to check on her every couple of hours, but it was all in a huge rain storm! We had larger than golf ball sized hail, and some in our area had baseball or larger sized hail.

This is where she decided to finally nest. The little indentation to the right is where I uncovered the first egg. I'm glad that I went out multiple times, because she changed her digging location around 8 or 9 pm. You can see the one she started on the left. The actual nest was covered up and even when I first saw it, so I could reasonably assume there were actually eggs there. The site to the left was abandoned as is.

Here's the first egg!

Seeing more white showing through as I dig through with a spoon. 

I started marking the eggs with a marker to make sure I keep them right side up. I was surprised after I uncovered six, and started moving them, to find two more.

Eleanor is an octomom!

Time to keep them humid, but not to much. Last year, Nadine's eggs split, and I think they were too wet.

 

This is the earliest we've ever had eggs by nearly three weeks, but we had such a goofy March. I can't imagine how Eleanor fit all eight eggs inside of her and still managed such a voracious appetite. Eleanor laid two clutches of eggs last year, first 5 eggs, and then another clutch of 4 eggs. She's never laid this many at a time. 

I've got garden updates too, but not that much time. I'll share those pictures later!