Patty Register's backyard isn't like yours.

"I appreciate the wildlife,” Patty said with a sly grin.

Outside Patty's backdoor are strangers roaming her backyard that's also filled with 64 alligators and crocodiles.

This time of year, Patty has her hands full with more than 5,000 bay reptiles.

"We used to have the incubator in our living room!” she boasted.

The incubator holds the alligator eggs she and her husband Allen have kept warm as second generation gator farmers at Gatorama. 

The old-school Florida roadside attraction is still thriving, often running out of parking spaces on busy weekend days.

Every August during the Hatching Festival, the couple is in need of midwives in a way you may not expect.

"We hatched a gaaaator!” said an excited Hatton Kurtz as he was drawing out his syllables. The elementary school student wore an appropriate Florida Gators shirt to get his hands dirty.

Just west of Lake Okeechobee, you too can experience the start of life in your own hands.

"It looks cool and it feels weird,” Hatton said as a baby alligator slithers out of its shell and into the palm of his hands.

The experience at Gatorama is now a family tradition for the Kurtz family.

"We come every year,” explained Hatton’s mother Ati Kurtz.

And while alligators have been in the headlines this summer, Ati feels comfortable allowing her children to experience a live birth in their hands.

"It's very safe. The kids know they are not supposed to go touch gators unless it's this environment."
Patty agrees.

"We need to teach our kinds on how to live safety with alligators, because they're here and we're taking up more of their land,” Patty said. "People learn best when they are engaged and having fun."

While you can't take the baby gator home, everybody leaves with a birth certificate.

NOTE: The Hatching Festival runs through Sunday, Aug. 28, 2016. Reserve your egg here.

Tankful on Television
You can catch new Florida on a Tankful stories each Thursday and Saturday on News 13 and Bay News 9. New editions play at the end of each hour starting at 6 a.m. Classic Florida on a Tankful stories can be found each Friday and Sunday on Bay News 9 and News 13 at the end of each hour starting at 6 a.m.

Tankful on Demand
Catch Florida on a Tankful with Scott Fais on your time, now on Bright House Local On Demand, Channel 999. Use your remote to scroll to the right to the TRAVEL category. Then scroll down to TANKFUL.

Scott Fais joins Travel Monthly
Catch our own Scott Fais as the Florida Correspondent on the On Demand travel magazine, Travel Monthly. Each month, Scott joins other travel reporters from across the United States as they showcase a wide variety of attractions, diners, parks and landmarks from across America. See Travel Monthly nationally on Time Warner Cable channel 411. And here at home on Channel 999.