Egg tub question...

I've had my incubator running for almost 3 weeks now. I've got a test tub in there with vermiculite and water as well as an egg crate. The tub is a shoebox tub with press-n-seal on top. My humidity is still only sitting between 80%-85% despite adding more water. What should I do? Add so much water that the vermiculite can't hold anymore? I'm at a loss of how to get it to 90%-100%. Now that I've got the temps stabilized...the humidity is whacked up. I just want this sorted out before I get eggs.

How much water:vermiculite do you have in the tub initially?

You can put a large bowl or tub of water into your incubator if you can't just keep the tub humid.

i put vermiculite under light diffuser and soak it so the water level is almost up to the top of the plastic but not touching the eggs. I do use press and seal and open the tub about 1x a week to check. Here is a old vid where i used a cut up milk crate to do basically the same thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7mf9T3a_l4

I started off with 250g vermiculite and 250g water miixture. When the humidity was only at 60%, I dumped about 500mL more of water (I'm estimating because I didn't actually measure it) into the egg box. That brought he humidity up some, but at the time I didn't have press-n-seal. That's when added the press-n-seal and it went up to the 80%-85%. I'll put a spare water dish in the actual incubator and see if that doesn't help some. Do you think I should just completely saturate the vermiculite? I won't have my eggs sitting on the substrate. Like I said, they will be sitting on an egg crate.

If its so important to keep the tub sealed with cling wrap how do I put the accurite probe in one of the tubs to monitor the humidity and maintain airtightness?

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I just sealed it around the probe.

The Press 'n Seal is to hold moisture, not air, in (moisture is bigger than air). My guess is that you have achieved a higher humidity than you think. Many hygrometers are inaccurate when they reach levels of saturation (like 85+%, for example). I pretty much saturate my substrate under the light diffuser (no Press 'n Seal, just locking lid tubs), but remember that eggs will weigh it down slightly and you don't want them contacting the water directly (therefore, no water floating on top of the substrate).

Thank you! I'm hoping that's the case. I have additional light diffusers in case they sink a little too low. Right now, it's not THAT saturated. I still can't wring water out when I squeeze it.

sometimes i dont even use vermiculite. There are a ton of breeders who use a substrate less incubation and just poor the water up so its not touching eggs.

I use regular old $1 shoebox tubs and I don't bother using press-n-seal, it will stay plenty humid in there with the heat and eggs. To be honest I don't even measure the humidity in my egg tubs, I just make sure there is plenty of water in the verm/perl.

Here is a decent picture of how wet I keep them
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...ding/006-7.jpg

I guess I'm just a nervous new mom lol.

These will be my first clutches ever. I'll hopefully be getting two. I just want things to go as perfectly as possible.

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Originally Posted by BHReptiles

I guess I'm just a nervous new mom lol.

These will be my first clutches ever. I'll hopefully be getting two. I just want things to go as perfectly as possible.

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Me too. Have you had ovys yet?

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Originally Posted by milesp

Me too. Have you had ovys yet?

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Sadly, nope. I just started pairing one of the females (a pastel) after new Years...so I won't get an ovy till this summer, I'm thinking. I don't even feel follicles on her.

The other female (a normal) I purchased possibly gravid. She had been paired with a black pastel since October 1st. She's got marble sized follicles, so I'm on my way to an ovy. She's currently in her second shed this month. O.O I was a little surprised by that. However, her follicle size doesn't seem ovy-ready yet so I have no idea what's up with her.

Both are being paired with my lesser male. Both aren't eating and both are driving me nuts!