'Final' tally on egg laying for 2003
TOTALS = 5410 fertile eggs laid, 879 infertiles
COUNT = 388 clutches
AVERAGE = 13.94 fertile eggs per clutch
% fertile laid = 86.02
Of course, this is not 100 percent accurate. There were some 100 percent infertile clutches that I didn't bother writing a card on, and some with only a few fertile eggs that I just marked the container and also didn't write up a card on them.
I had projected 445 eligible females to breed this season, so I don't know about the missing females. I know there were some that I decided to not breed and others that wanted nothing at all to do with the males this year.
Not all of the 'good' eggs will hatch, either. Probably something on the order of 85 to 90 percent will make it. Some will be kinked, and some will refuse to feed. But all in all, it should be a good crop of babies this year.
Oh yeah, ALL are scheduled to hatch by September 2nd. So I will likely be pretty much incommunicado most of August.
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