signs of emanate delivery?

I am new here and my intro is in the newbie thread. Forgive me if I seem ignorant, because I am lol. Three days ago we unexpectedly acquired 1 male and 2 gravid female corn snakes. All three are quite beautiful, although I am still trying to figure out what morphs they are. I will post pictures later.
My question is, how do I tell when my females will lay their eggs since I don't know when they were bred? One has a quite noticeable bulge just above the vent and a peaked back, and is also heaver than the other two. We have this sort of tree stump climbing thing in her enclosure that is hollow at the top,and she has climbed into it and remained there for the last 3 days. It was probably a mistake to put it in there, but we didn't realize that when we did it. I know that when it is almost time for laying that the female needs a nesting box, but I just learned all of this yesterday. I have a plastic ice cream container with a hole cut in it and the moss that I have read others use. How do I get her out of the thing she is in, and do I need to worry about moving her soon? Does this behavior mean she is going to lay them soon? I could really use a crash course in all of this. Any help would be greatly appreciated by me and the snakes. The other female has only a slight bulge above the vent and is not exhibiting any of the behaviors that I have read indicate she would be laying soon.

Amber

The bulge you are seeing does have the potential to just be fatty hips. :shrugs: Without a picture, it would be difficult to tell, but it's another option if you haven't seen breeding or are definite they were bred.

That being said, if they are gravid, you could feel 'bumps' along the lower 1/2 of their body. Two things are triggered for me to indicate they are going to lay their eggs. 1. They typically lay their eggs 5-10 days after their prelay shed for me. 2. The day before or of laying, they "circle up". I use this term to indicate that within the nesting box (which has been in the cage since before their prelay shed) instead of just hanging out in the box, they actually circle around and flatten a 'hole' within the moss similar to a dog circling a pile of cloths or a blanket before laying down to take a snooze.

Hope that helps somewhat.
D80

Thank you Drizz. That does help. We know that they have been bred, the previous owner witnessed it on several occasions. They were kept in a case with 15 other corns of varying types and gender. They previous owner said that all the snakes were mating constantly. I had not wanted to feel for the eggs, because I was concerned about moving the mother too much or possibly harming them, but I guess it is okay if I am gentle. The prelay shed I had read about, but I was unsure of how pre that was or how reliable. Thank you again for your help. Here is a picture of her in the spot she has stuffed herself in. Do you think it would be safe to try and take her out, or should I coax her somehow?

Any ideas what morph she is?

I'd probably try to get her out of there if you can as she definitely doesn't have much room to lay eggs in there! It was probably the safest place she could find at the time as I got the impression that you put in the egg laying box after she stuffed herself in the log. I'd probably also look into getting another cage for the amel I believe I can also see hiding in there. Co-habbing tends to be frowned upon for various reason though some people do it quite successfully. :shrugs: As for morph, she looks as though she's a Normal, but cold also possibly be a Hypo.

Glad I could be of some help.
D80

We are definitely going to get another place for the other 2 in there. They were all together at the place we got them from, and we didn't know about the cohab problems. We need a little more money to get our rack system, but that should only be a few days.