indigo eggs

Hi,

Just a new guy here. I have been into Indigos for about 5 yrs now and thought this site looked interesting. I have looked a time or two in the past but never had the time to actually get involved.

Well I took the first step.....and here I am. I live in the Midwest and this is my 3rd yr out breeding indigos. The first yr I had one female with 8 eggs
next came three females with 32 eggs and this year is four females and 8 with three yet to lay. Has anyone been over due this year. Last year mine all laid april 2, 7, and 12. This year I am april 27 and I am still waiting. Three very large and swollen females still to come. Is it just the weather or what?
I addeda picture of the first 4 she laid before I went to work.There were 4 more after I got home. I hope it comes through, first post and first picture up load
jeff

Jeff,
Sorry we didn't meet sooner! Welcome. We need some new blood! Where have you been hiding?

This is my second year. It did seem to take forever. My girl laid April 28. Looks like 10 good ones, and a couple probable slugs. My other girl died from egg binding complications a couple weeks before that. But she gave me at least 1 good egg before she bound up. That's it for me this year. As for next year,...I don't know if I'm gonna breed her 3 years running. I do have a huge male stud though. Very fertile! And I would like to work out some kind of breeding loan with someone. If someone would loan me a female next year, I'd hook them up, and maybe get a baby or two back from that. Or let me just keep her, and I'll give you all the babies. Whatever works. That way we could both diversify our gene pool a bit. Drop me an e-mail if you're interested. How come we never heard of you before?
T.
P.S. your pic didn't make it.

I am interested in making some new contacts and even show/see some new stock. Who knows from there. I am interested in helping the class.
Great to meet you the picture was to large for the site restrictions.
I have been in school and look forward to being more involved
Jeff

It's great to hear of other's having success with the species, especially those who have not been within the mainstream, I know there are quite a few more out there too!
Sounds as though you have had some great success with the captive husbandry of our beloved D. couperi and I would love to hear more about your experiences, such has hatch rates and where your breeding age indies originated from.
Again, it is great to see you posting here!
By the way, if you are using Microsoft, you should be able to alter the size of the photo you wished to post, to match formatting capabilities. If not, feel free to forward to me directly and I will be happy to post such for you...

Tony, I have been out of pocket as of late, as the semester is winding down, which means the flow of final exams and semester papers are being dealt with. Anyhow, I will call you this weekend and perhaps we can establish a date to hit the river and wet some flies!

Best regards,

Jeff

O.K. to both Jeffs. I'm ready to go fishin ANY TIME!!!! And or to play with snakes any time. So just let me know when, and we will get together.
T.

Well it finally happened I got 10 eggs out of another female last Wednesday and 6 out of my smallest female yesterday morning. So I am cooking 24 I guess we will see.
I still have my largest female that has never laid yet, seems kinda late but its been a weird season here,so who knows. They all usually go in April, however May seemed to be the month this year. So I guess anythings possible. I will keep you all posted on the hatch rate.
Jeff

It looks as though there are going to be quite a few D. couperi available this year, which will make a lot of folks and facilities quite happy, but I know a lot of dry keepers, self included, that will be losing more hair as the hatch dates start closing in.
By the way Jeff, what lines do your indies originate from?

Best regards,

Jeff

All mine were from the stock of Virgil Willis Rockford IL. I acquired them over about a three year span. I believe a few came from Bruce Roberts or Roberts Bruce? I am not sure on the name but I remember him mentioning this name I believe? Does this sound familiar?

I knew Virgil worked with D. m erebennus up until last year, but had no idea he had worked with D. couperi.
Robert Bruce has been working with D. couperi for quite sometime now and has, what is perhaps, the largest single collection of the species in the world. I know he has close to 40 D. couperi eggs in incubation as of now and will once again produce more D. couperi than any single breeder. I believe he produced close to 70 babies last year.
It sounds as though you have a great group and I am sure we would all enjoy seeing photos of some, should you have a chance to post any...

Best regards,

Jeff

Cool,...now let's trade some babies!
T.