"As three-time Soapbox Derby Champ Ronnie Beck says, 'Unguarded construction sites are a gold mine.'" -Bart Simpson

While my days of pirating materials from construction sites to build skate ramps and bike jumps are way, way behind me, my urge to re-use old building materials from my own scrap pile continues to fuel many of my reptile projects.

My pile contains all sorts of fencing, screen wire, unused materials, and wood scraps from 10 years of projects around the house, and it's always the first place I look when I have something that needs to be built.

Thus it was I found myself scanning the detritus of a hundred different tasks, looking for bits and pieces that would help me in my next reptile project: a tortoise tractor!

What is a tortoise tractor? It's a tortoise cage or pen on wheels that can be shuffled around the yard as needed to different spots, such as areas where the grass or weeds are greenest.

The term "tractor" here comes from the use of wheels to make the unit more mobile, from the poultry world where chicken tractors are used by many home breeders to house their small flocks. Tractors like this can be as simple or as advanced as you have the need, desire, and budget. Some are tall with fancy coops or hides at one end, others not so much.

Most reptiles and amphibians do better in a captive environment if given a place to hide or burrow.

Thankfully there are lots of commercial hides and hide boxes available in all different sizes, shapes, and formats. From simple plastic hides, to elaborate logs and caves, these commercial hides work great if you only have a few animals. If you're dealing with a large number of animals, however, they can sometimes be problematic. Aside from being expensive to buy or replace, they can be difficult to clean, they may not fit the cage or the animal well, or they may not do all the things you need them to do.

I needed a hide box that would work for my medium-sized colubrid snakes. And I needed one hundred of them, so they had to be inexpensive, replaceable, easily cleaned, and, as a special requirement, they needed to "hold" a replaceable water dish, in this case a 16-oounce round deli container. Although I found several that met most of my needs, none of the commercial ones met them all. So I made my own.

Using a few tools, including a cordless drill and two hole saw bits, and cheap black spray paint, I re-purposed a stack of used plastic containers into the (almost) perfect hide box for my needs.

Starting with the plastic containers, once yearling cages, I used a 2-inch hole saw to cut out a side entrance at one end of the container. On the top of the container, at the other end, I used a 4-1/2 inch hole saw to cut a hole in the top of the box. These were hole saw bits that I already had, and if I had to purchase a new one for this project I would use a 4-3/8 so that the deli cup would fit tight in the hole. With the 4-1/2 inch bit the tolerance is too close for a tight fit, but my hides prevent the bowls from being tipped over, and that was the goal. I also found that the hole saw bit's teeth would often grab the plastic as it broke through and "fling" the box around. Running the drill in reverse to do the cutting once the initial pilot hole was drilled prevented this. It took longer, but created less dust and a cleaner hole.

With my boxes cut, I took some $1 flat black spray paint and gave the boxes single ruddy coat of paint. It doesn't need to be a solid perfect coat, just enough to obscure the light filtering through. Once dried, the hide boxes were placed in the cages, water bowls filled, and my kingsnakes all had new homes.

In the end, for the balance of the turtle and tortoise ponds I concluded a simple pond, made out of concrete, would be the best option for now.

Unlike the first pond, this one would not have a concrete frame, and in essence would be just a dished out area of dirt, covered in an inch of concrete, with a sump and a drain. They would be round and roughly the same size as the 3-foot kiddie pools, but not nearly as deep.

With a gentle slope on all sides and the middle being the deepest spot at between 6-10 inches, these ponds provide enough water to completely immerse but are easy to get into and out of. Generally speaking, they resemble super-sized bird baths.

These ponds, roughly 3-4 gallons each, took very little time to excavate, with the augering of the sump area taking up most of that. Each pond used between 1 and 1-1/2 60-lb bags of quik-crete, providing a base that was 1-2 inches thick.

I formed a small lip around the edge of the pond to allow rainwater to flow around the pond instead of into it. I did not use any reinforcing wire or mesh with the concrete, and I am certain that someone standing on them would likely crack them. But they were designed for turtle foot traffic rather than human, and if I decide on a better "ultimate pond" later, they can be readily broken up and removed.

These have worked well so far, but winter arrived more quickly than anticipated, so I was unable to do much analysis before the turtles started burrowing for the winter. With spring only a few months away, it won't be long before they are put to the test.

Another turtle and tortiose pond idea I tried out was to use the large concrete mixing tubs available at home improvement stores. Suggested by long time kingsnake.com contributor Bonnie Keller, this option was one she had used one with the edges cut down at an angle to provide a slope down to a deep end.

At $14 a tub, I wanted to try one straight up because modifying 96 of them would be tough. And I was already looking beyond plastic ponds as likely the ultimate solution.

A rectangular tub that holds just over 20 gallons, it was smaller than the kiddie pools, but still so deep that it required more excavation time than I wanted to expend. I again excavated with a shovel and water hose to seat the tub properly, and again used the auger to great a sump area for drainage, and added a drain plug to the tub.

Though the ends of the tub had a gentler slope than the kiddie pools sides, it was still too steep for the turtles to get a footing to exit the tub. Again I added rocks to provide them entry and exit, but the Eastern Box Turtles had the same problems getting in and out. They would flop about, frustrated, fighting to get out until they found purchase on the rock pile.

Again this proved to be a "workable" solution that on a small scale could be usable once the issues were overcome, but scaling it to 96 pens would be problematic. This pond too, while still in use today, will be replaced by what turned out to be the eventual best solution.

Watch for part 4!

The obvious solution for my turtle and tortoise pond dilemma was simple: hard plastic kiddie pools. They've been used uncountable times for this and similar situations, and for most people, they're the preferred option.

While they have some immediately obvious, and a few less obvious, problems, I still ended up trying this pond idea in a pen just to see how difficult the issues were to overcome.

Even though it was beyond "pool" weather for the year, I was able to track down some 3-foot round "dog washing pools" at Petco for $10 that were the right size and shape, even if they had a giant bone imprinted on the bottom. I probably seemed a little odd buying 12 of them, but they were almost out for the year and I wanted to be prepared if this was the best choice for all the ponds. If not, they would still be useful as temporary turtle and tortoise pens.

The first, and most obvious issue, is that kiddie pools have steep plastic sides made of hard plastic that would be difficult if not impossible for a box turtle to climb out of on its own. One suggested fix was to use rocks piled up in the pool to provide entrances and exits, and in the end this is what I did.

While finding enough of the right sized rocks for one pond was easy, it took no time at all to determine that I would be buying a truck full of rocks if I had to do this in 96 ponds. And while replacing the rocks with concrete was a solution, again I saw myself having to buy a truckload of concrete, as well as 96 kiddie pools at $10 each, and 96 drain plugs.

The second major issue was that it took four times as long to excavate all the dirt required to seat the pond in the ground, as it was substantially deeper and larger than the first pond. I did this with a shovel and a water hose. Again I used the auger to create a 3-4 gallon sump in the excavation, but as the pool holds 20 gallons of water or more, it takes a while to drain out.

Once in place the Gulf Coast Box Turtles used it, but the steep sides made it difficult for them to enter and exit. Often they had to splash around, frustrated, until they gained footing on the rocks. While I am still testing the kiddie pool as turtle pond, it is likely to get replaced over the winter. While this is a "workable" solution for one or two ponds, it doesn't scale well to my needs.

In part 3, I'll try another solution!

Box turtles, though primarily terrestrial, love to splash around in the water, and of course box turtles need access to fresh drinking water, too.

Tortoises need access to fresh water as well, so it's a natural that some type of pond should be included in an outdoor enclosure, even if only deep enough to provide a ready source of fresh drinking water.

I wanted ponds that were deep enough for the turtles and tortoises to immerse themselves, but not big enough to require major maintenance or financial outlay. They needed to be very basic and easily reproduced. They had to be sloped enough to allow the turtles and tortoises easy and safe access, and they had to be easy to clean. I wanted ponds that could be flushed weekly rather than requiring filters that would have to be powered in some manner.

In looking for the right solution, I tried a number of options used successfully by other people. All of them had and have issues.

My initial design had a small rectangular pond excavated from each pen, framed in wood, and concreted in with a sump and drain plug.

For my first test pen, I used this design. I used a shovel to excavate most of the pond, and the auger to create a deep 3-4 gallon sump at the lowest spot. I used some hard plastic from an underbed box lid, and cut a rough cover for the sump hole.

In the center of the plastic, I inserted a 1-5/8 PVC pipe to provide a drain, and placed the plastic with the pipe over the sump hole. With the sump hole covered carefully first so the plastic didn't cave in under the weight, it took around two 60-lb bags of quik-crete to fill my pond excavation, which when cured held approximately 3 gallons of water.

While this worked well and was relatively inexpensive, it seemed more labor-intensive than I'd like. By framing it, the dirt had to be excavated further than planned and required more concrete to build back the slopes.

However, the 3-toed box turtles loved it, and within 24 hours were happily splashing around. The pond allowed them easy access in and out, and was just deep enough to submerge. The biggest issue was that I failed to give the pond a "lip" that would prevent heavy rains from washing down into the pond, so it needs to be flushed if rainwater fills it with mud.

With the first pond down I wanted to try some other ideas. Stay tuned for part 2!