Breeding and Incubation Help

This is my first year breeding and i had a few questions.

-Does age play a roll in breeding potential (ex.If I had a 05'-07' that was 12-1400 g's)

-How do i know if my male bp is producing sperm or ready to breed?

-How do I entice my young males and adult females to breed?

-Right now I have 1 male breeder for every 2 normal females; Is 3 days on 3 days off with a small meal in between good enough to get the job done on both females?

-I have kept all the bps i wanted to breed in 1 rack and set it at 80F.I did this for about a month and introduced they males to the females and have seen numerous locks with all of them. I still have the temps set at 80, do i have to change them in anyway when i see the females building?

-I will probly not be able to get a refrigerator in the living space im in now and was hoping to get a good sized incubator for about 4 clutches of at least 7eggs. Where would i find one?

- What do you recommend for a t-stat?

-What are your thoughts on maternal incubation?

Can any of the breeders out there help me out?

1. You want your females to be at least 1500 grams and 3 years old
2. you can pop your males and sometimes find sperm plugs, they are usually good to go after their second year and around 600 grams
3. leaving sheds in the enclosure, rubbing other males sperm plugs on her back, there are many ways to entice them to breed, there are many threds on this
4. 3 days on/3 days off is what I did and it worked pretty well. Your male may go off food while he is breeding
5. Some people lower temperatures during breeding season, I did not and it worked well for me. I only had one female breeding though
6. if you don't have room for a small refridgerator then how are you going to have room to house 28 (or more!) hatchlings? have you thought about what you would do if you couldn't sell them? What if you are forced to keep them because they don't eat, they are deformed, or something else happens?
that being said, you can make a small incubator out of a cooler. There are many tutorials on youtube. There are also companies that sell them online such as LLLreptile.com, reptipro.com, I made my own incubator so I can not recomend a specific one
7. You should use a preportional (as opposed to on/off) thermostat such as a Ranco, but many people on this site, including myself, have used johnsons, reptitemp and other on/off type thermostats with success
8. There is a thread on maternal incubation http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...nal+incubation
most people recomend artificial incubation because maternally incubating can stress the female, you will be able to get her eating and gaining weight again sooner, and you have much more control over temperature and humidity. But you also have to remember that ball pythons and all snakes have been doing this themselves just fine for thousands of years.

Hope this helps!

I have decided to go ahead and buil my own incubator but i still had a few questions.

1.How do i know if my fan(s) are providing enough circulation.
2.How do i make sure my humidity stays consistent threw the entire fridge.
3.How much heat tape is required? I have seen some with 1 11" strip and some with 2.
4.How often should i open the fridge?How much is too much?
5.I plan on using the Hatchrite medium and heard i would need to add water to it even though it says otherwise on the bag.Is this true;If so how much do i add?
6.If i were to have 2 incubators set up with a clutch in each would one being set at 88 and one at 89 change anything (ex.sex ratio)?
Thank You

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1.How do i know if my fan(s) are providing enough circulation.

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I use bathroom ceiling fans on dimmer switches, butin a small incubator a computer fan is probably plenty of air movement.

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2.How do i make sure my humidity stays consistent threw the entire fridge.

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You don't, the tubs hold in humidity not the incubator.

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3.How much heat tape is required? I have seen some with 1 11" strip and some with 2.

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Depends on the size of the fridge.
I used a mini fridge last year with 2 feet of 11x12 flexwatt and it worked great.

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4.How often should i open the fridge?How much is too much?

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I opened mine as often as I needed to.
Place as many full water bottles in the bottom of the fridge and opening it won't be too big of a deal, just don't leave it open longer than needed.

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5.I plan on using the Hatchrite medium and heard i would need to add water to it even though it says otherwise on the bag.Is this true;If so how much do i add?

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I used it my first year, it sucked(my opinion)
How much water you add will depend on how open your tubs are.
A sealed tub shouldn't loose too much but if you have holes or your tub leaks air then hatchrite can dry up in less than 30 days.
Adding water in the corner of the tub takes care of the issue but then you have to monitor closely it till eggs hatch. I added most of a shot glass at a time when it started drying out :P

Research substrateless incubation, I found it much easier than hatchrite.

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6.If i were to have 2 incubators set up with a clutch in each would one being set at 88 and one at 89 change anything (ex.sex ratio)?
Thank You

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No change ;)

Thanks for the help.I still have a few more questions lol.
1.Where do i put the probe for the t-stat in the tub or incubator?
2.What is the best way to provide humidity so that i dnt have too keep checking on the eggs?
3.Perlite or Vermiculite? Any other opinions on hatchrite?
4.what should the humidity be inside the tub at all times?

Also do I need holes in the tubs?

here what Idid a simple set up.

I got a an coke machine the kind with glass door like you see at stores. I drilled a hole and place a single stripe of 4 in flex watt in anr it ran from one side ot the other ( down one side accross the bottoem and up the other side till it was level with the other piece) I placed my probe to hang mid fridg in the air ) I placed a wet towel along the bottom of the incubator ( kept wet by adding water as needed) I then set my tubs up with a single hole in each side and filled with egg medium and eggs on a piece of light disfusser and set the tstat at 88.5 ( about )and kept 2 temper probes in the set up on that gave me the eggs temp ( as I stuck the probe in between them) and one for the tub to compare if the air was warmer than the eggs ) and adjusted till I hit te 88.5 readings. waited 55 days cut and then waited until they left the eggs. rinsed off placed in a tub that sat in the incubator until all the eggs hatched.( for that clutch)
then removed them as aclutch sexed and tubbed them with an id code
raised them until I was able to find homes for them/sell/trade them for other snakes i wanted.

will repeat the process this year.