Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Turtle Daddy

You already know my Josh is a nature/animal lover.
And I am pretty sure I've mentioned in the past that he has a certain affinity for turtles.
But have I ever told you about him incubating turtle eggs???
I know. I could search my archives and answer that question myself. But that would take more effort than I feel like exerting at the moment. *ahem*

Anyway, for the past three or four years, my son has been incubating and hatching turtle eggs in his bedroom. On some occasions it has been because the original nest was attacked by a nasty old raccoon, and Josh was saving the eggs which remained. And on other occasions he has simply come across a nest and taken the eggs home to incubate. His stance is that he's doing the turtles a favor because in the wild, it is very rare for all of the eggs to hatch. Be it an attack from a nasty raccoon, cold weather, or some other obstacle - it just isn't normal for all the eggs to hatch. That's why he has been so proud of the 100% hatch rate he's had in previous years.
My son, the Turtle Daddy: Saving the turtles of mid-Michigan - one clutch at a time.

Here he is with this year's first hatchling.

Once they have all made their way into the world - and when their yolk sacks have all dried up - Josh will take the current brood and release them in a near-by pond. Then he'll put away the tanks and heater and all the other equipment occupying the space on top of his dresser until next year. And he'll get back to having a one-track mind on fishing. But until then, I can expect him to keep me updated with multiple-times-daily hatch reports. The most recent news is that turtle #2 has his head out of the shell, with the rest of the body expected to follow soon.

Now you know.

Karen

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