Incubation Temps

This season I am going a little lower. I want to test the theory of lower temps, more robust babies. Heat tape is at 88, egg box temps is around 87.2-87.5. In the past I have incubated at 88.9 with no problems.

89 - 90. No probs.

Chris

89 degrees in the boxes .......works like a charm. I use to breed Parrots so this seems easy SO FAR :)

I helix at 90.0 and my incubator stays inside right at 90 .. no temp variant unless i open the door to put in more eggs ..

I used to hyper-focus on making sure every shelf in the Natures Spirit was as close to 89.5 as I could... Last year I said screw it, I will just set the HELIX at 90 and go from there... The containers were actually a few degrees colder and I had twin babies die in the egg (Pastel Crystal and probably 5 gram Pastel Mojave) along with a couple kinked babies early in the year... I then paid more attention to the temperatures having to set the HELIX up a couple degrees... I dont believe I had any more problems.
I have always heard about how tough Ball Python eggs are... I have known of someone throwing a clutch in his backpack, hopping on his motorcycle, and then riding ten or fifteen minutes to an incubator. I have heard that they have dropped probes in the egg pits in Africa and have found temps up to 100 degrees without problems.... I even heard (through the grapevine) of a breeder claiming that hes noticed if you incubate at 89 = 60 days, incubate at 90 = 55 days, and incubate at 91 = 50 days...
I dont stress out as much if I see the incubator go up a few degrees... I have a closet incubator now and I set the HELIX at 93 degrees. I have 5 probes inside the incubator and I generally have temps right about at 90 to 90.5.... My clutches have been hatching at day 52 with higher numbers of females.:P

I would rather a little warmer than colder... Just my opinion...

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Originally Posted by Python Dreams

I used to hyper-focus on making sure every shelf in the Natures Spirit was as close to 89.5 as I could... Last year I said screw it, I will just set the HELIX at 90 and go from there... The containers were actually a few degrees colder and I had twin babies die in the egg (Pastel Crystal and probably 5 gram Pastel Mojave) along with a couple kinked babies early in the year... I then paid more attention to the temperatures having to set the HELIX up a couple degrees... I dont believe I had any more problems.
I have always heard about how tough Ball Python eggs are... I have known of someone throwing a clutch in his backpack, hopping on his motorcycle, and then riding ten or fifteen minutes to an incubator. I have heard that they have dropped probes in the egg pits in Africa and have found temps up to 100 degrees without problems.... I even heard (through the grapevine) of a breeder claiming that hes noticed if you incubate at 89 = 60 days, incubate at 90 = 55 days, and incubate at 91 = 50 days...
I dont stress out as much if I see the incubator go up a few degrees... I have a closet incubator now and I set the HELIX at 93 degrees. I have 5 probes inside the incubator and I generally have temps right about at 90 to 90.5.... My clutches have been hatching at day 52 with higher numbers of females.:P

I would rather a little warmer than colder... Just my opinion...

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Good stuff, Tom! The important question is, what temp do you recommend I keep the Schlager at!? :)

I have Herpstat set at 86 with prob hanging in the middle of incubator. My boxes are closed and any temp spikes because of ambient room heat (90-91) don't effect them much. Eggs have been hatching 58-62 days. :)

I set my Helix at 89. degrees, and my temps stayed between 89.2 and 90.4 degrees.
Out of 14 eggs so far this season, I have had a 100% hatch rate.

One hatchling was trucked up, and had to hit the freezer.
Even though 13 of 14 hatchlings are pefectly healthy, I plan on adding a small fan to my incubator for this coming season.

I still have 2 eggs cooking from a 1. Bee and a 1. Pastel x .1 Pastel.
They are going to be cut on Sept. 11th. :salute:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jglass38

This season I am going a little lower. I want to test the theory of lower temps, more robust babies. Heat tape is at 88, egg box temps is around 87.2-87.5. In the past I have incubated at 88.9 with no problems.

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I tend to agree. I dont know if i posted in this thread or not, but im incubating at 87.9 this year ( probe in the eggbox )

( Hah, i forgot i made this... LOL)

T-stat set to 90.

differs from 89.1 to 90.1 no biggie.