Upside Down Egg Experiment

[muddoc]

I got into a discussion on another forum about the orientation of the embryo in the egg when it is placed in the incubation box. As a result, I decided to perform an experiment to see what would happen if we placed an egg upside down. Below is the post that I put up in the other forum.

We are 19 days into the experiment, and below is a pic and the results. What I did was to locate the embryo in an egg that was just laid (lay date 6-13-09) and mark the embryo. I then turned the egg 180 degrees and marked the opposite side with an arrow. After 7 days, I candled the egg, and learned that the embryo had started to migrate towards the top. After 14 days, I noticed that the yolk(or mass that is usually at the bottom of the egg when laid, which I purposefully had placed at the top when I set the egg in the box)had fallen to the bottom, and I couldn't find the embryo anymore. However, I could see the eye of the snake sitting above the yolk, and the egg appeared to have "fixed" itself internally after being flipped. I will post another update in about 2 weeks, when I can see pattern on the snake, and have determined that the snake is still develop;ing, and hasn't died. This has been a fun experiment, and I hope some of us can learn from it.



p.s. I still think I am going to orient the embryos up, even after the experiment, since I have been doing that for three years, and feel comfortable doing it.