Incubation Temps

What is the lowest temp that's safe to incubate eggs? I don't want to go higher than 90. I have my Helix set at 89 right now. The bottom egg box is reading 85.4 and the ones above go up in temp a couple degrees each - heat rises problem. I've got the large tubs I had, I've got shoebox ones, and I've got even three more smaller ones I picked up today (doesn't say size, but a wee bit bigger than the shoebox ones).

No eggs yet, but the shoebox don't look like they'd hold six eggs (the largest clutch I'm expecting).

I set my herpstat to 89F, the probe is located in the incubator in front of the fan with a water dish behind it.

Temp inside the container/s according to the Acurite is usually about 86.5

They seem to pip on day 57 at that temp for me. :)

88 is usually my lowest temp...

I haven't tried any lower, personally.

i read in the barker book that there was a successful incubation of bp eggs at 80.5 degrees except it took much longer than the usual incubation period at the regular temps.

so i guess 85.4 is fine...:weirdface

I used these(similar anyway): http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid...d=HPProd280017

I found them at Walmart and they are $7-something for 2 of them. The lid seals securely too.

Wow! Those don't look big enough - but of course, I've not had eggs yet to judge. Adam uses bigger egg boxes and so that's why I picked what I did.

I heard that with reptile eggs that the lower the temp during incubation the more females you'll have. And vice versa for males.

Like 88 for lots of females and 91 for lots of males.

I can't remember where exactly I heard it (I think it was animal planet, but I could be wrong)...

I would say my lowest would be 87 though (I keep mine on 89 normally).

I hope any of that helped :confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elusivereptiles

I heard that with reptile eggs that the lower the temp during incubation the more females you'll have. And vice versa for males.

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While that's true for leopard geckos for example - the same doesn't hold true for ball pythons from what I've been told.

Definitely doesn't hold true with Ball Pythons.

Robin, they may look small, but the eggs honestly aren't too much bigger than an elongated large chicken egg. Especially when they are going to be buried in vermic, they won't touch the top unless they are really piled high(you can separate them if you catch them soon after laying). I had 2 of those boxes last year and used the no-sub method. One housed 6 eggs, and one housed 7 eggs. They hatched out great and the temps/humidity remained very stable. I also used a 6qt shoebox for 5 smaller eggs that were stacked on top of each other(no-sub method also). Worked out well and they all hatched out fine :)

Mine stay at 89.5 to 90