incubating substrate

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Thanks! ... I just feel like I have to walk on egg shells lately ... seems like anytime I try to add my two cents these days people get angry with what I have to say. I'm trying to tone down my over the top style of preaching about the things that I am passionate about in favor of a kinder gentler delivery of the info that I have to share ... hope it's working. :D ;)

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Definatly a hard thing to learn, especially when you have strongly held opinions and a passion for this hobby. I've been working on it myself but sometimes it's just fun to let loose.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I've been working on it myself but sometimes it's just fun to let loose.

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Isn't it though? It's a struggle for me for sure!

-adam

Sorry Adam I didn't know that was your sig. I won't use it anymore.


Brock

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Originally Posted by Brock Wagner

Sorry Adam I didn't know that was your sig. I won't use it anymore.


Brock

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I'm sorry Brock, I think you misunderstood my post. It's certainly not "my sig", but it is something that I'd like to promote here on Bp.Net ... I feel that if people (when giving advice) sign their posts "Hope this helps" they will be more inclined to think about the advice that they are giving and whether or not it's truely helpful ... it's my way of attempting to start a trend that I hope will better the site. So please, feel free to sign as many posts as appropriate with "Hope this helps" ... we can all only benefit from it. :D :sweeet:

Kudos to you for being one of the first of what I hope is many to follow in my footsteps with the new trend! Take a bow sir for trying to help! :clap:

Hope this helps.

-adam

I keep bins with rocks and water in my incubators to try to stabilize temp swings and keep up humidity, it can get real dry where I live (11% humidity yesterday, can you say bloody nose) I put holes in my rock/water bins so the inc doesn't get dry and I have never had to add water to my vermic. i have been tempted to try the substrateless method but since i never had a problem with vermic I don't want to change or screw up my track record.

From what i have heard the problem people have had with vermic is it's too wet. I squeeze all my stuf until I can't get anymore water out and then I'm good to go.

I feel like I'm about to be flamed as a newbie, especially with what I am going to relate here, but here goes anyhow:
I haven't bred BPs (or any other reptile so far) but I grew up raising over a dozen APA show quality breeds of chickes, as well as ducks and geese and lots of other feathered-wierdos. Anyhow, I can remember helping with the incubating since I was 3 or so so give me a little credit with egg hatching experience ok??
Anyhow we used to use this old school incubator from the 50s.... held about 400 full size chicken eggs in wire bottomed drawers. Humidity was controlled via a water dish at the bottom and variable opening vents near the top. Temp was an old school dial reostat.
Now with poultry the mother is constantly shifting around and moving the eggs so that they develop properly. I guess because of the sedentary nature of the BPs we dont have to worry about that, but in our old chicken incubator we did, so there were these wire racks, with waves in the wires to fit the shape of the egg. By way of a lever at the front of each rack we could rotate all of the eggs in each tray at once. I think in newer incubators for poultry they have an automated (timer) sytem that uses a small motor.
What I am getting at with all of that history is that if you feel like the eggs are going to 'roll around' without substrate you can always build yourself a support rack for the eggs. Once I get things rolling I'll be doing something along those lines; with a supporting rack above a deep layer of fairly moist substrate.
One thing I do worry about is ruining the protective layer on the outside of the egg. I know with poultry eggs once you wash an egg your hatch rate drops to about 5% b/c bacteria can migrate into the egg's pores and kill the egg.

Anyhow, just my 2 newbie cents
(PS feel free to flame me for anything I am incorrect on; I'm new to BPs and need to accelerate my learncurve)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

This coming season will be my twelfth year using vermic for ball python eggs ... I should go through over 160 lbs of the stuff in the spring ... I've tried everything from perlite, to sand, to substratless over the years and have had equal success with all of them ... vermiculite is just the easiest and most convenient for me.

Hope this helps.

-adam

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if it ain't broke...

when i first started incubating, i looked at all the methods.

alot of chondro guys were having great success with no-sub methods.

most of the ball breeders used vermic for over 10 years!

i just followed their succes!! i didn't see a need to experiment.



adam, 5 gal. buckets!! big ballin:D



vaughn

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I know with poultry eggs once you wash an egg your hatch rate drops to about 5% b/c bacteria can migrate into the egg's pores and kill the egg.

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Actually I found this part interesting. I've found that I often will lose an egg when condensation has been dripping on it. It's one of the reasons I cover all of my clutches with clean paper towels to catch the drips. I always thought it was because the egg was being drowned with too much water, but maybe it's because the water is allowing bacteria into the egg? Food for thought anyway...

Mark

Hello all,
I am a rookie to egg hatching...and I have a handfull of ball pythons that I am hoping will lay some eggs soon. I have a Large size homemade incubator. I used the egg crate inside with perlite and don't really know how much water to pour in...I also use the top of a hoverbator that has heat and fan...but don't trust the heat device and in order to run the fan the heater stays on....I have it set up with a heat pad and a ranco thermostat set to 88 or 89F.

Any help to make this efficient would be appreciated.

Thanks Andy Federico


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http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...a268Medium.jpg

We use a 66%/33% (or 2:1) Vermiculite/Perlite blend. Then we add water to feel (a learned science, uh maybe art) and drop the eggs right in.