Snapping turtle eggs

Question
I have a female snapping turtle laying eggs in a flower/shrub area in our backyard.  How many eggs will she lay?  Is the 50-60 days approximate for incubation?  Will the babies instinctively head for the river?  What about us watering the flower bed with a sprinkler?  Does the mother completely abandon the nest once eggs are laid?
Thank you.

Answer
Hi Larry,

How lucky!  I would love to have a turtle nest in my yard (only one native species here, and no nearby bodies of water).  Anyway, a female snapping turtle can lay up to about 20-30 eggs, but if she's still small she may lay less.  Incubation period is roughly 80-90 days, but could be as low as 60.  The babies will instinctively know what to do, but may also overwinter in the nest.  This is pretty common in some turtle species, but may be less so in snappers.

If you water the bed frequently, it may have an effective on incubation time or the viability of the eggs, but since MN gets summer rain anyway, my guess is that the watering won't make a big difference.  And yes, the female lays and then abandons the nest.  The young are fully able to care for themselves once they hatch.

One other thing that most people don't know:  turtle/tortoises are temperature sexed; that is, their sex is not determined by chromosomes the way ours is, but by incubation temperatures.  Lower temperatures produce mostly males, medium temps a mix, and higher temps mostly females.  So if you have a cool summer, those hatchlings will probably be male, and if you have high temperatures, they'll be female.  Enjoy watching that nest!

http://www3.northern.edu/natsource/REPTILES/Snappi1.htm