Frozen frog spawn

I looked out the window this morning and noticed that the pond had frozen over.

This could be disastrous for the frog spawn in the pond that was laid in my pond 8th February when the weather was mild as the spawn can be affected by cold weather.

The layer of ice forms covering the surface of the spawn could cause the upper layer of eggs to die. However it is a big clump of eggs and those in the middle and bottom of the spawn may survive.


Frog spawn development slows down when its cold so I will have to wait and see what occurs. In March, frogs from further afield will usually visit my pond and so there will probably be lots more spawn to look forward to.

developing frog spawn

I moved a small clump of the frog spawn to an aquarium tank in my workshop. I did the same last year to ensure some of them make it to froglet stage. The workshop is not too warm this time of the year and so the development is a similar time span to the spawn in the pond. The tadpoles are beginning to take shape, some slightly more advanced than others.

frozen spawn and nest box

I awoke this morning to discover the pond had frozen during the night. embeded in the ice were the tops of each clump of spawn. The ice was thin, so hopefully it has not caused too much damage. I boilded some water and carefully poured it onto the ice away from the spawn to speed up thawing.

As I came back from taking our daughter to school I stopped to check out the bird box mentioned earlier. After a few minutes a blue tit arrived and entered the nest box. It stayed inside for about 3 minutes before coming out. Another blue tit was near the nest box. Not conclusive evidence that they are nesting, but a good sign.