#snake eggs

Mayonnaise surprised me with this lovely little clutch! I thought she was still a few weeks out but she apparently elected to skip a pre-lay shed. Well done, May!

I maded dees.

FINALLY.

Hatshepsut didn’t like her new lay box and refused to use it, so I turned a drawer on my hatchling grow-out rack into a lay box instead. She’s used this size box before and I know she likes them. She dove in and almost immediately laid a single good egg and a single slug three days ago, but then shifted gears and started to focus on nesting instead.

Today she finally decided that her nest was ready and started laying in earnest.

Now I know for next time. Pharaoh gets a queen-sized birthing suite and nothing less.

I went out of town this past weekend so of course Morse laid her clutch the moment I left. These slightly dry but otherwise very lovely eggs should plump up in the warm humidity of the incubator.

Sneggwatch 2022 has commenced!

well, things got a bit better anyway.  i managed to throw out my husband and my roommate (okay, they went to a nursery of their own volition,) for about six or seven hours and yes, i did spend at least one of my hours alone lying on the floor in front of the fan simply Existing.

i also did laundry, fed animals, butchered three rabbits, and …something else, i forget, in one of the most productive days i’ve had in months.  and then the next day i was alone again for most of the day!  truly i am spoiled.  that day i mostly just chilled out and drank tea, but it was still wonderful.  unfortunately this comes after a pretty miserable week of me being locked in my office desperate for isolation in any way shape or form, but it’s getting better.  hopefully.  

the skipped week involved a lot of stress outside of that, too.  i had five rabbits go off feed, which meant that all of my precious little energy was put towards their recovery effort, and i had to rely on my companions to handle the birds and the rest of the rabbits.  fortunately two rabbits recovered well and are back to eating normally.  two sadly died, including my new beveren mix boy ginko, which came as a hard hit.  the last has been in limbo for weeks and i’m still not sure if she’ll recover, but hopefully i will find out the key to her eating again and she will bounce back.

this last week was better.  the only good thing about losing half a dozen rabbits last month is that i now don’t have to spend the time force-feeding and medicating them, and i have some more empty cages open to redistribute growouts better.  trying to regroup and focus on moving forward.  i’ve got some nice looking himis that’ll never see a show table but will still compliment my breeding project well, some rex litters i’m excited for, and plans for another rabbit-related road trip in the near future which will net me a very fun harlequin gene that should mean good news to my fur clients.

picture remotely related as this is mom of the rex babies, as well as our sidebar bunny for the summer layout.

my partner has gotten permission to return to the office to work, and while it makes me a little nervous, it is only him and one other coworker there in different offices, so the risk is pretty low.  i do feel a little like i’ve pressured him into endangering himself for my mental health even though i never even brought the option up - he offered.  but it has helped, unfortunately.  having the mornings to myself before my roommate wakes up is very much like how i’m sure normal people feel sitting on the porch with their coffee before work.

i’ve been trying to readjust my routine to try and maximise my perceived alone time in the mornings and at night, and it’s been somewhat working.  the roommates also went to a lumber store on saturday, leaving me alone for several hours again which helped.  it would be nice if we could plan something like that every week where i have some downtime to work on housework, but i still understand we’re in a pandemic and there’s only so much traveling that can be done safely.  however my roommate’s studio did open up again, and i’m not sure of the specifics of how it’s operating, but hopefully that will get them out of the house again for a little while a few times a week.

in other news, i will be a grandsnarent in approximately a month and a half, which is very exciting.  it’s not really “farm related” so i don’t talk about it much, but i’m dipping my toes into snake breeding very casually, and a couple days ago i got my very first clutch of ball python eggs!  it’s been an Event trying to tell if my girl was gravid or not, because there was some issue with her not taking during the original session of pairings, but she sure did pop out seven perfect eggs, didn’t she!  they are now safe inside the incubator under my helicopter eye, and somewhere in mid september hopefully there’ll be some babies!

pictured:  forbidden mozzarella balls

well, i’ve got AQF coming over to help do culls and bring me a new girl (hint:  her name is Cloud Nine,) today so i should get moving on lunch and straightening up the kitchen.  i have some Business Things to do and some cages to order since now i kinda know how many i can find in the barn in total, and writing a blog post isn’t conducive to any of those.  so goodbye for now, and maybe next week i’ll have more good news.