These eggs (T.Hermanni Hercegovinensis) were laid 8th April.



After 24 hours, the chalk spot inside the egg is already visible



Over the next few days it continues to spread.



After 6 days it pretty much covers the surface of the egg. At this stage the egg will appear chalky white in colour under normal light.



After 11 days a circular object (sometimes referred to as the ring of life) is clearly visible. This is the blastodisc, the life support mechanism for the egg. A small embryo is also visible just left of centre.



The embryo continues to grow and veins are just visible.



Day 18, Still growing and veins are more visible.



To be continued...

great post Dave,really clear pictures.thanks for this it will be a lot of help to anyone with eggs this year.

thank you for that but i do worry about taking the eggs out of the incubator.how long is safe to have them out to candle them.its easy to see the embrio in your eggs and to see each stage , but is it easy to do and how careful do you have to be, sorry to be a wimp but i do worry about them....tiggy

when i candle i dont remove the eggs i just turn off the lights and lift the lid of the incubator holding the maglite against the top of the egg for a second or two.this is normally all you need to see what is happening during the early stages.once you get within a couple of days of the due date you can lift the eggs if you want to candle from underneath as once the membrane starts to pull down this is the only way to tell how large the yolk sac is and therefore how close to hatching they are.to be honest once you know they are fertile and developing its safest just to leave nature take its course and check daily for pipping after about 50 days for hermanni.

Hi Tiggy,

With my incubator you can take the top off so this is done in situ without touching or moving the eggs. The temps drop but this is perfectly fine, a wild tortoises nest has temperature fluctuations, overnight for example. It only takes a few seconds to do. Shine a bright light( I use a maglite mini torch) through the egg and view from the other side.

Thanks Terry,

These are approaching the blackout stage but I'll get some more pictures over the coming weeks.

Taken earlier this evening - Day 24. Two different eggs.

Lots of visible veins




The embryo is filling out and now appears as a dark shape. As the baby grows, the egg will get darker and it gets hard to see anything for a while.

great pictures again Dave.this will be very popular and i think it needs to be a sticky.thanks again for sharing.

OH. MY. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How clear are they????? I will now start looking for the chalk spot

That embryo!!!!! So cute!!!!!!

Thank you so much for this Dave, I for one am very grateful....... very well pictured, very well edited, well done!

Do we think it needs to be a sticky...... HELL YES!!!!!

Your welcome. A picture paints a thousand words and all that. Its a shame because things like blood vessels are so much clearer in the flesh. As Terry has said you don't need to do this so regularly. The embryos are now reacting to the light (they move!) so I'll probably do once a week from here on in. It's just I have a little niece who is very interested in the eggs so I'm sending her pic's. Get em hooked young I say

Yes thank you for that Dave. Ive got a couple of eggs, havent got a clue whats happening with them as didnt know what to look for they are in an incubator & I didnt turn them but thats about all I knew (can you tell I didnt expect eggs?!) But yes thanks very much this is very helpful infomation.