A snapping turtle laid eggs in my back yard. Should I do anything to help them hatch?

Question

We haven't had much rain lately, and the ground where the turtle covered the eggs is quite hard. I'm concerned that the eggs won't hatch. Is there anything I can do to help the process--moisten ground, loosen soil, etc?

Answer 1

is there a little garden gnome out in the wild caring for these little clutches of eggs? i'm sure the millions of years of evolution have ensured the survival of the snapping turtle race. i think your efforts are probably best spent elsewhere.

Answer 2

No, you should just leave it alone. I'm sure the mother turtle knows what's its doing.

Answer 3

No leave them alone, the eggs will be fine. In fact the eggs should stay dry so the embryos can breathe.

Answer 4

Nope. Just let 'em be. Nature will take care of it. They lay their eggs in certain places for a reason, I guess that's just where snapping turtles would lay their eggs normally, just this time it happened to be in your back yard!

Answer 5

Incubation period is 9-18 weeks depending on temperatures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpD1xlbA1...

Most predation occurs within the first week after the eggs are laid. Thus, if you know within a couple of feet or so where a turtle has dug a nest and laid her eggs, you can stake down a large square (two or three feet on a side) of half-inch hardware cloth on the ground over the site as protection. Leave it for at least a month. Remove the hardware cloth in late summer and install a little fence that encircles the assumed nest area. The fence can also be of hardware cloth and should be about six inches high. The little ones will be corralled and can be captured if you check the fence daily at the right time of year. We've done this many times and it works great.

When should you start looking for the emerging hatchlings? For the vast majority of U.S. turtles that nest in late spring or early summer, the eggs will hatch in late summer or fall. However, the hatchlings of many species of freshwater turtles display a trait known as overwintering whereby the eggs hatch but the babies remain on land in the nest through the winter and emerge from the ground in the spring.