Turtle Trouble! Advice needed...

nurseangel

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I think a land turtle has laid eggs in our yard!  At least that is what I think has happened.  It was in the midst of a storm so bad that I could only go out at intervals to see what was going on.  She basically had dug a large hole in the yard and then was covering it back up when I went back out.  Now it is a completely flat patch of land.  The only way I can locate it is because the grass is gone from the area.  What should we do to protect the eggs from predators? 
 

Willowy

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That's so cool! I wish we had wild land turtles/tortoises around here. I only have them as pets :tongue2:.

You can put a piece of wire mesh over the area, but you should look up when her eggs will hatch so you don't keep it on there too long. Don't use anything that would impede air/water flow, make it warmer/cooler, or cause water to pool in the area.

When a wild mama rabbit had a nest in my yard (in the fenced-in area where the dogs were!), I put a panel from a dog crate over the nest during the day. I think chicken wire or welded wire fencing would work as well. But at least with a turtle nest, she won't be back to feed/check on the babies, so you don't have to remove it until the babies are about to hatch :D. Be careful about mowing after they hatch. Make sure they have a lot of brushy places to hide in the general vicinity.
 
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MoochNNoodles

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We had baby bunnies in the yard earlier this year. DH put a few wooden stakes in the ground around the nest to mark where it was.  We didn't mow that while they were there.  I wonder if the stakes would deter or attract predetors?  
 
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nurseangel

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Hmm...maybe some chicken wire.  I hope I get to see them when they hatch.  When my family lived in Florida, a batch of baby sea turtles hatched and started going the wrong way, not to ocean but to the road.  My family (I was a baby) and a group of neighbors set out to put the babies back in the right direction.
 

sugarsandz

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I read that you can surround the nest with chicken wire or mesh then also put it over the top. I read to make it a few feet wide so it will keep animals from sniffing to closely. It also said it can take a few months for them to hatch and possibly not until the next summer.

I'm not sure where you reside so it might be different for incubation time depending on species and environment. This advice was from someone in Ohio with a kind of Box Turtle.

I typed in "a turtle layed eggs in my yard" and surprisingly a lot came up lol!

Oh also leave gaps big enough for them to leave through once born which I read at an inch or two. This might be different depending on the turtles size. It'd be best just to go take a peak on a daily bases to see if they've hatched! Good luck! :)
 
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