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Got my first clutch of eggs for 2008

You all don't have any idea how tough it is to "cut back" these days. Heck, even trying to stay with the same number of breeders I had last year means I have to sell off around 300 adults to make room for those new ones reaching breeding size. I tried like heck to avoid starting new projects this year, but failed, of course.... :bang:
 
:eek:
I tried like heck to avoid starting new projects this year, but failed, of course.... :bang:


Yep...those new projects will get you everytime! In the very least you have to hold back more than the original pair so right there you are increasing numbers! :eek:
 
Well, things have DEFINITELY turned around in the fertility department the last few days. Getting pretty much 100 percent fertility with every clutch lately. *knock on wood* :eek1:

Those first few clutches had me pretty worried...... :bang:
 
You all don't have any idea how tough it is to "cut back" these days. Heck, even trying to stay with the same number of breeders I had last year means I have to sell off around 300 adults to make room for those new ones reaching breeding size. I tried like heck to avoid starting new projects this year, but failed, of course.... :bang:

Sooooooo, are we going to see an adult sale this year?

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!
 
Just wondering Rich, do you still put multiple males to your females for optimum fertility...?

Yes. This year I also made certain (in most cases) to breed the three males to the female within a 1 week period. I would have liked to have gotten it done in three days, but that just wasn't feasible with the numbers I work with.

Used to be that I would try to get all females bred at least once before going on to the second breeding, but that often caused long stretches of time between each breeding for any particular female. Which may have made the subsequent breedings superfluous because any fertilizations would have possibly taken place before that second and third breeding every took place. So an infertile male for the first breeding basically was the only breeding that really mattered for the season. Since I sometimes had second clutches that had more fertile eggs than the first clutch, this seems to support that possibility, as the second clutches were likely fertilized by those later breedings, which had no effect on the first clutch.

Anyway, I'll know more after this season whether or not this new strategy made a difference. So far, it appears that with any given clutch, they are tending to be either ALL good or ALL bad. With the ALL bad ones, even with three different males, it didn't seem to make a difference with fertility. And I think it unlikely that all three males would be infertile. But heck, there can be a lot of factors involved, so who knows? :shrugs:
 
Infertility %

Rich, In Kathy and Bill Love's book,CORN SNAKES, in the paragraph about infertility on page 95 they state "the problem to be very rare in our collection...well less than one percent". What percent of your collection would you say has been found to be infertile and which, if any, sex is it more common with? thanks, Kyle
 
Rich, In Kathy and Bill Love's book,CORN SNAKES, in the paragraph about infertility on page 95 they state "the problem to be very rare in our collection...well less than one percent". What percent of your collection would you say has been found to be infertile and which, if any, sex is it more common with? thanks, Kyle

Beats me. I'd have to look at my spreadsheets from years past, but 85 percent fertility seems to stick in my mind. Quite honestly, I would like to know how someone can get only 1 out of 100 infertiles as an average. Certainly I must be doing something wrong....... :shrugs:

As for the male or female being the cause, I wouldn't have any way to say which with any level of confidence that I knew what I was talking about.
 
hiya cuttin in on the post...lol
do you have a min order on shipments to the uk?im interesting a quite a few of your 07s and cannot wait to see your 08s
Louise
 
hiya cuttin in on the post...lol
do you have a min order on shipments to the uk?im interesting a quite a few of your 07s and cannot wait to see your 08s
Louise

From Rich's site:

International Shipments: Please note that I typically do NOT ship outside of the continental USA. However, that being said, I have done so on occasion by asking someone I know locally to broker the shipping arrangements for me. But he charges me for this service, and as such, that charge, along with all of the other charges associated with shipping internationally, must be born by the purchaser. Expect your shipping charges to be roughly $1,000USD. Rather then try to accomodate individual requests for accurate estimates on this charge, I am charging a FLAT $1,000USD for ANY shipment going outside of the continental USA. Also, bear in mind that this is a process that is much more complicated then a domestic shipment. So much so that I will not even consider doing so unless the order (not including the shipping charge) comes to AT LEAST $5,000USD.

Further, concerning the distances traveled and the number of hands the box will likely have to pass through, I do not offer ANY guarantee of live delivery whatsoever. I will do all I can to insure that they will arrive safely, but my control is very limited in a case like this, and I just cannot take the responsibility for everyone else involved in getting these animals to their final destination. I STRONLY suggest that you attempt to find someone within the USA whom I can ship to who will do the final inspection stateside before shipping the animals on to you. In a case such as this, my shipping fee is the standard cost as listed in the chart above, and there is no special minimum order in effect. I also guarantee live delivery to the FIRST point of receipt of the shipment within the USA.

Sorry if this seems rather strict, but this is the only way I am prepared to handle this sort of transaction at the present time.
 
Actually, lately I have had some dealers broker the shipping arrangements for me, and turns out it is cheaper than the local shipping broker I have been using. But still, figure on shipping to cost around $700 plus or minus (mostly plus) another $100 or two.

The following three have done shipping brokering for me in the past, so please contact them if you want to arrange a shipment internationally.

U.S. Global Exotics
Glades Herp
Reptile Industries

BTW, quite a few people arrange to pick up their animals at the Hamm shows by having Glades Herp or Reptile Industries ship them over along with their own animals. Probably would be cheaper that way.

The only caveat with the above is that I am not willing to hold onto animals any longer than 1 month for such an arrangement revolving around a Hamm show.
 
id love to go to hamm but wouldnt be posible, its a fair distance and i have a child with autism and he doesnt cope well with strange situations and i dont have the option to leave him with anyone else for more than a few hours, was a good idea tho thankyou.
i was thinking of ordering when you have your 08s aswel that way it gives me a little longer and some time to see if anyone else over here wants to order and come in on the shipping, out of curiosity how long do you hold for normally, your gunna think im a right pest lol
 
I only hold animals for a month. There is always a chance I will have them later on because they didn't sell, of course, but it really puts a burden on me to hold snakes any longer than I absolutely have to. When the prior year's animals are still here when the THOUSANDS of new babies begin hatching, it's pretty much panic time around here. EVERY mouth to feed takes a bit of time, and TIME is the one thing that there just is not enough of at that time of year.

I really don't know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but I think I've gotten close a couple of times in July and August over the years.

Here's a photo from another thread. Notice all those red dots on the shoe boxes? That means the eggs within that box have hatched and all the babies inside that box need to be identified, sexed, labeled and put into separate containers. And there are MORE on the other side of that rack as well as on top of those racks along the walls. Anyone who really knows how much work they are staring at can't HELP but go into mental meltdown just looking at it...

eggcontainers03_001.jpg
 
I love this photo.
Looks like lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, lots of, ..., lots of work :)
I admire you
 
yeh, i saw that post you definatly have a lot of babies, i can understand you not wanting to hold them longer than a month, you defo have your work cut out with them and websites to run and a life to live aswel, not suprised you get really stressed around that time.
well what i will do is get the money sorted, then see what you have got, then prob call you to put my order in if thats easier on you or let you know a fewday prior let me know whats easiest on you and i will contact the companys you have suggested.
thanks
Louise
 
It looks like a huge amount of work just to feed that lot..........

If you are going to order from the states and import to the UK, you have to order a huge amount of snakes to make it worth while. I ordered 50 corns for myself and it was only just worth doing, if you only want a few it is cheaper to buy them in the UK
 
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