egg and incuabation questions!?!?

so a friend of mine gave me some eggs. I set up a cooler incuabtor and have them running at 88ish. he thinks they were laid on the 28th. one of them shows good veins but the others only have a small red line on the side of the egg. im guessing the ones with no veins are bad.?!?

also, im using a vermiculite setup with the eggs on top of lighting grate. i mixed it good....well i think. it looked just like everyones example. i have a hole in one side of the 6qt tub for the thermo probe and the temp probe. i am getting a lot of condenstaion on one side of the egg box and on the top of the press and seal. this morning i wiped off the condenstation and noticed that some drops fell on a couple of the eggs. luckily it was the ones i think are no good. how detrimental is this to good eggs? and should i try and dry the setup a bit? im not sure if it dripped when i was pulling back the press and seal or if it happend without me touching it. there seems to be no real pooling of water on the press and seal. so im not sure.

suggestions??? please don't give me you should have had this setup before the eggs....i wasn't suspecting this.

re-check for veining in a few days, do you have a fan in your bator?

You may want to remove your temp probe from inside the egg box.


P.S. Thanks again for sexing my snake :)

the cooler is small so there is not fan. also everyone says to put both probes inside the box near the eggs so the acutal egg box temp is what is reflected.

no problem! glad this one turned out to be female for you.

ok lisa your right. sorry. i found that here: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=85524

i just wondering if the other eggs are good or not. there is just a small area of red on the sides. anyone with comments on that.

ok found the above on another site.

now what happens if i get drops of water on the eggs?

I read somewhere that they put a paper towel over eggs, I don't really know how helpful this is, I'm sure our seasoned breeders will chime in with helpful suggestions

keep us posted Lucas

You get condensation when the temps inside the egg box aren't the same as the temps outside the eggbox. Do you have a fan to help circulate the air in your incubator?

If you see water drip on the eggs, it's ok to wipe it away with a paper towel. I wouldn't however, drape paper towel over the eggs, as they need to be able to breath.

If there are weak veins, the egg will likely mold and shrivel up after a while. Once it starts getting really nasty, you can be certain the egg is dead.

If the egg starts to get a little mold on the outside, but has strong veins, just wipe the egg of any mold.

Who would give you eggs like this?

i dont have a fan in the incubator. it is really small and adding a fan would only cramp things. i took the probe out last night and put it on the shelf to try and reduce condensation. water only dripped on it once and i wiped it off as soon as i noticed it.

this guy down the road gave them to me. he was just going to toss them so i'd thought id give it a try and see if i could work out all the kinks with an incubator for next season when i produce my own eggs.

i think only one egg is viable. out of 5 i have one that has strong veins, and 2 that show a wide red band and a small circle like shadow in the egg. the others are empty. would have been cool to see 5 babies hatch out but hey 1 is better than none right!!! i have my fingers crossed that it goes well!! and if not.....i gave them a chance!

pulled the probe out and laid it next to the egg box. the egg box is always 1 degree warmer than the incubator?!?!?!? and im still getting alot of condensation. i added some dry vermiculite to try and absorb the excess but this didn't help.

ideas?!?!?

Try melting a few holes (not a lot) in the sides of the egg box to help reduce the excess humidity causing the condensation. Are you opening the egg box once in awhile for air exchange? Are you sure your hatching medium wasn't mixed too wet in the first place? Sorry if I missed it in your thread but how many days along are these eggs?

Here is a pic of one of my BP eggs towards the last half of its incubation.

Notice the huge veins and the dark form(snake) at the bottom of the egg.
http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ptilia/egg.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Try melting a few holes (not a lot) in the sides of the egg box to help reduce the excess humidity causing the condensation. Are you opening the egg box once in awhile for air exchange? Are you sure your hatching medium wasn't mixed too wet in the first place? Sorry if I missed it in your thread but how many days along are these eggs?

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i have only one hole in the box. im having to open the box daily to wipe out the excess moisture. i mixed the substrate just like everyone else does and it felt ok to me. no water squeezed out, it clumped but was still able to "flake" apart.

the eggs were laid on the 28th.

and only 1 of my eggs looks like that joe. im pretty sure the rest are duds.

How do the eggs feel? Are they dimply? or are they overly firm(like ready to explode)? Or do they give a little when poked?

When they are dimply they tend to be dehydrated or they are dead eggs(in my experiences).
When they are so firm they feel like they will explode that can mean too much moisture.
They have to give a little then that means they are at the correct humidity.

Take some pics or your set up and the eggs. That can give us a better idea of what we can advise you on. But it seems like your ok besides the droplets. Which is most likely due to temp difference issues between the containers and the environment.

Joe,

the eggs are firm and give a little. the water i though was dropping from the top was actually one of the eggs sweating. i think this is why my egg box it a bit hotter. it is going bad at a pretty good rate. the problem is that the bad egg is stuck to the good egg. so i have a clutch of 4 eggs stuck together with the good one at the bottom. one is going bad quickly and the others are empty.

i will snap a shot tonight and put it up.

here is a shot from the inside of the egg box. as you can see two of the eggs are failing rapidly. and all but one is attached to the one egg that is showing strong veins.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q...9/CIMG0799.jpg

No need to rid of the bad eggs. They will be fine.

I kept the bad eggs together with the good till the end. The good eggs will be ok if they are good no matter the eggs next to it are bad. Even with mold. Just keep the temps and humidity maintained and it should be ok. The only difference is I bury my eggs and you don't. It is not a bad thing just a different way to incubate.

In about 50 days if that one egg makes it name that thing Hercules heheehehee.

Check out the below clutch I had.
http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...goodandbad.jpg

i poked some more holes in the tub and the temps fell from 89ish down to 84??!??!? so i put the thremo probe in the box to bring up the temps.

i have not idea how/and why the temps fell. if the inucbator is at 89 then the egg box should be too.

holes? Why did you poke more holes?

My egg bins/tubs are sealed(closed with lid no holes).
They get air when I open them every other day. I use 6 or a 15 quart sterilite tubs depending on the size of the clutch. For yours I would use something closer to 15 quart.

This keeps the temp stable in the tub. It will not fluctuate as much as one with holes.

If the humidity is too high in the tub dry it up. Put more dry vermiculite in it. It is easier to add more water then take away. Like if the eggs wrinkle a bit just spray the corners away from the eggs. This will raise the humidity.

If the temp in the tub and outside of the tub are the same and the humidity is correct there shouldn't be any condensation unless the eggs are ready to hatch. Which is when they produce more heat.

dude i am going in circles with this!!

i plugged the holes back up and added a fan. the fan is a must!! now after opening to check on things, temps raise up very fast and my egg box and incubator are at the smae temps so im not getting condensation on the tub. the humidity is low so i added water to the mix. this morning everything looked good!

:banana: :banana: :banana:

Yay! Now leave it!

PS - Make sure the fan doesn't create much heat if it is on constantly. Most CPU fans don't. This can make the temp rise in the incubator.

Other than that.. GOOD LUCK 45 more days!?! about..

Here are a few pic of my eggs

below taken April 30

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/...dc0f78cffb.jpg



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/...09b0f0ff0d.jpg
above taken may 12

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/...389aca7dab.jpg
taken May 17

yea thats what my good ones look like. and the other ones.....well lets just say they look like bad easter eggs and are putting off a great smell!! mmmmm rotten eggs

oh and i will add this. i am going to use the maxwell method next season (if i get eggs). its different than the substrate less method most use.