To vent... or NOT to vent-That is MY question.

Seeing it's eggie time... :)

I've read, and or heard anything from vent your eggs every day, to vent every three days, to seal that box and vent in the last two weeks, etc... all scenarios leading to success.


So obviously there is no "one way" to incubate successfully. Especially when you factor in all the different incubators, substrates, environments, and so on.

I guess this is my question... Is venting case sensitive? As in dependant on what substrate your using?

Example: "I use vermiculite, so I need to vent every day"...

Not even sure if this qualifies as advanced...?

Just thought it would be a good subject for feed back!

Last year I peeked in once per week and opened up the egg boxes. I was using substrateless incubation and they all hatched out perfect. I'll probably do the same thing this year just because I like watching the embryos inside develop and making sure all of the eggs are doing fine :) Wigglers!

I've read that you don't even have to circulate the air in the egg box at all. A good number of breeders just leave the egg box alone for 60 days.

Sweet! Thanks Becky :D

I've read that too somewhere.... did you haft to replace the water at any point? I know tap water is chlorinated, but I wonder if it goes stagnant at some point? I've got one substrateless box that's been up with the same water for about a month now and it seems to be fine...
Thanks again for the feed back! :D

In my experience, I completely sealed the egg box using press and seal. In the beginning I was checking on the eggs and opening the box every day. When I did that, the humidity would not stay high enough. I backed down to every few days and the humidity did a lot better. During the last few weeks of incubation when the temps inside the box rose and the box really started having a lot of condensation, I opened the box every day again, and sometimes I'd wipe the condensation off the press and seal. When it came to be just a week or two before the hatch date, I took the press and seal off of the box and just used the lid of the tub so it was not perfectly sealed.

I used vermiculite and a few pieces of damp moss in the box.

Nope, I didn't have to replace the water. At one point, I had to soak up some of the water with a paper towel because a clutch of 7 was so heavy, it started sinking, even with 2 layers of the light grating underneath. I'm thinking of using some pieces of pvc pipe to hold the grate above the perlite/water. They all hatched out fine though.

The water seemed fine though and didn't get icky.

My egg boxes didn't really get condensation on them except a bit on the sides. I had a shoebox tub filled with water in the bottom of the incubator so the humidity would equalize. Didn't make the Acu-Rite too happy, LOL. It quit working(the one inside the bator) from getting so humid.

Gotcha! *taking notes every day* :P

I know if you use a substrate, it's better to go with as large of a container as possible, I'm assuming that going substrate-less... it's ok to use a 6qt... correct?

I'm just gonna ask stuff as it popes into my head :rolleye2:

I used a 6qt last year for a 5-egg clutch(BIG surprise to me as the snake was a rescue) and it worked out fine. Put Press N' Seal over it, and put the lid over that. Held humidity just fine and the eggs did great(all 5 were girls).

For my non-surprise clutches, I used those red-topped rubbermaid food storage containers. They were 2 for.. $9 I think? I'm going to use 15qt tubs this year just for the added space.

Great to know Becky! Thanks again for the input... I figured a 6qt would work... I was just curious about the size! :)

We use a 2:1 Vermiculite/Perlite blend. I used to always open up the egg box once a week, mostly to check the eggs, but they obviously got some fresh air while the top was off. Toward the end of last season, we were so busy with hatchlings, that I didn't have time to check the eggs that often, so many of our last clutches went a month, and some the entire 60 days without ever getting any fresh air. I did not notice any problems from doing it either way. As Rapture stated, I think the only regulating force here is checking too often, and having the humidity stay too low in the box. As long as your heat is spot on, and your humidity stays very high, I don't believe they need any "fresh air".

Hope that helps,

I've done the same as Tim, although I did at one point cut a small vent hole in one of the tubs just to see what would happen.

Nothing different came of it, as the humidity stayed up there, and the temps were good.

Not an exact science by any means, but make sure not to dry them out. That has happened to me before as well...

I do pretty much what Diana (Lunar) does. I DON'T open boxes until last 3 weeks, and I also wipe condensation off the TOP of Press N Seal -- wet sides are OK. I take the press and seal off the last 7-10 day as Diana posted. I use eggcrate with a 50/50 mix of verm and perlite. I never have to add water. I incubate at 88.5-88.9. This has worked great for me so far. As we all know there are MANY successful variations on the theme.

Great stuff everyone! It's just a subject that you hear so many different things about, it's great to hear what works for everyone!

:gj:

ok so sorry to highjack this thread but if you were not to check on the eggs until the last few weeks would that not put the entire clutch at risk if there happend to be a bad or moulding egg in there? or does that even matter?

No Hijacking worries! :)


No clue... I have 2 that seem to be taking after a Chia pets... :rolleyes:

I've just been wiping them off every other day or so...

I've read both: moldy eggs can harm other eggs they are next to... and I've also read somewhere that the other eggs should be resistant, I guess it's just case by case. Also I'm sure it depends on the type of mold...

Great question!

I never vent intentionally, just incidentally when I'm checking the eggs. I still had to add water to my tubs. I use a vermiculite/perlite blend in sterilite shoe boxes. The boxes really don't seal very well and I usually have to add water sometime during incubation. Most of the problems I've had have to do with the eggs drying out too much. I like that press and seal idea, I think I'll give that a try with some of my tubs this year. One other thing that I do though is to put a paper towel over the top of the eggs to catch any drips that come off the top of the container.

Have any of you using the press and seal put a small weight or ball bearing in the middle of the plastic to make a point, and draw the water droplets into a single area to avoid condensation? I wonder how well that works? Or if it's too tight... it would avoid having to open and wipe all the time wouldnt it?

We have three big soda bottles full of water in the bottom of the incubator which seems to help stablize temps which seems to be helping with condensation. We get a tiny bit of the sides of the tubs, next to nothing on the press and seal/lid combo. We're venting every 3 days and will do a quick vent every day after 45 days until hatching. :)

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I never vent intentionally, just incidentally when I'm checking the eggs. I still had to add water to my tubs. I use a vermiculite/perlite blend in sterilite shoe boxes. The boxes really don't seal very well and I usually have to add water sometime during incubation. Most of the problems I've had have to do with the eggs drying out too much. I like that press and seal idea, I think I'll give that a try with some of my tubs this year. One other thing that I do though is to put a paper towel over the top of the eggs to catch any drips that come off the top of the container.

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Mark, I had the same problem last year, and I'm pretty sure if I had sealed the top... I wouldn't have lost too much humidity... that's what prompted me to go substrate-less this year... one less thing to worry about LOL! :oops: I'm still using the press n seal over the water/pearlite to avoid evaporation and possible temp fluxes...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

We have three big soda bottles full of water in the bottom of the incubator which seems to help stablize temps which seems to be helping with condensation. We get a tiny bit of the sides of the tubs, next to nothing on the press and seal/lid combo. We're venting every 3 days and will do a quick vent every day after 45 days until hatching. :)

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WOO HOO! Not long now Jo! :banana: I'm getting light condensation on my first clutch now too... I'm pretty sure it's cause the inc. is at 89* and the egg box is at 92* :O

Their cookin right along! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I never vent intentionally, just incidentally when I'm checking the eggs. I still had to add water to my tubs. I use a vermiculite/perlite blend in sterilite shoe boxes. The boxes really don't seal very well and I usually have to add water sometime during incubation. Most of the problems I've had have to do with the eggs drying out too much. I like that press and seal idea, I think I'll give that a try with some of my tubs this year. One other thing that I do though is to put a paper towel over the top of the eggs to catch any drips that come off the top of the container.

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hows the towel thing working out? i thought of maybe doing that but was wondering that if too many water droplets dripped on the towel and absorbed through to the side touching the eggs, wouldnt the eggs absorb that water as well?

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Originally Posted by bigballs

hows the towel thing working out? i thought of maybe doing that but was wondering that if too many water droplets dripped on the towel and absorbed through to the side touching the eggs, wouldnt the eggs absorb that water as well?

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The eggs don't seem to absorb too much from the wet towels, problems I've run into in the past, especially with colubrid eggs was with eggs dying on me from getting dripped on due to condensation coming off the lid. The towels don't stay soaking wet but spreads out the moisture and drys out enough so that the whole thing feels slightly damp. I think another thing the towels do besides catch drips is to help even out the dampness so that no area is too wet or too dry. Eggs underneath the towels usually look really good. Better then they would look without. They do mold eventually though and you have to replace them with a new paper towel every now and then.

ya i was gonna ask how often you replace em but i guess it wouldnt be too hard to judge. change em if theyre too wet. thanks for that! i think im gonna try it out this year.