Egg dimpled. Help...

I have a clutch of eggs that I have incubating and the one egg thats all the way at the top of the clutch ( the eggs are stuck together) is getting dimpled. All the other eggs are perfect except that one. I've tried cutting a piece of paper towel that can only cover that one egg and dampened it and put it on top of the egg so it can get extra humidity, but the paper dries out quick. I don't want to raise the humidity in the tub because all the other eggs are good. What do I do? I don't want to lose that egg. lol

How many days into incubation are the eggs?

They where laid and put into the incubator on 6-17-09. So about 19 days

If the egg is white it should be fine. What color is it?

Daniel

I'm going to assume that you've candled all your eggs and know that they are fertile .
First of all the color of the egg will only start to change long after the saving point of
a viable egg has passed so the color of the egg has very little to do with the viability of the embryo inside at first. If its dieing or even just died the color of the egg will remain white. I've had infertile eggs stay white and plump for 15 days before starting to show signs of problems.

With this said eggs dimpling is a sign that the humidity has dropped in the egg box. I've had eggs dimple around day 20-25 that were fine but its going to take some pics to tell for sure.. A little dimpling in one egg OK. The egg caving in not some much.

Get some pics and lets have a look to see what you've got going on.
Also some info about what your using to Incubate the eggs in i.e( substrate,tub, ect)
and also what temps your incubating at.

Keep us up to date

Check the incubater medium for moisture. If the vermiculite etc needs to be more moist add some moisture(water) to it.
By the time most of my eggs hatch they are mostly dimpled to some degree.
I think your eggs are fine. You may have to add some moisture/ maybe not. Take pis and show us.

And make sure you are keeping the moisture in with sarran wrap someone correct my spelling if its wrong.

Yes I candled them. They all have veins. And I'm using vermiculite. And a 6qt. tub. The temps are 90 degrees F in the incubator and 91 in the tub, and the eggs are at 94. Here's the pic:

http://i401.photobucket.com/albums/p...0609235118.jpg

Looks like the top one just isn't getting the humidity that the ones in the medium are. I'm sure someone else here has run into this and can offer help based on their experience.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by waltah!

Looks like the top one just isn't getting the humidity that the ones in the medium are. I'm sure someone else here has run into this and can offer help based on their experience.

---

Yea, thats whats happening. I hope someone can tell me what to do.

I am not sure i read it right, but I would say 94 for the eggs is a little hot. The eggs should be 91 or even a little lower. Different people use different temps but 94 is a few degrees to hot. Try press and seal over the egg tub and then put the lid on it. I suspend my eggs from the medium so i can get the medium as wet as i want. I do not use the press and seal but a lot of folks on this forum sware by it.

yea it looks like the top egg is just a dimpled..since the other eggs are not I'd keep an eye on that one..

I'd have to agree that 94 in the egg box sounds a little hot for my taste. Although I have had a temp up to 92 and been fine. Just keep an eye on them..

the other thing to thing about might be using a bigger egg box..More substrate means more humidity. :D

Your developing eggs will make heat. I think they will be fine but dropping temp a couple degrees is advisable.
The pic shows me that the dimpling isn't that bad. Someone else mentioned caving in. I have had a couple eggs cave in and not hatch/ one was infertile and i think the other was fertile. I don't think you'll have that problem.

94 is far too hot in my opinion. I don't go above 90 ever. This year I am incubating at 88. If you mix vermiculite correctly and seal the egg box then you shouldn't need to add any water for the entire incubation period. I believe a 6qt tub is a little small for incubating. I use 18 qt tubs. More medium, more stable temps, more humidity. Good luck!

I had the same thing happen with my first clutch last summer. The other eggs looked fine, but the egg stuck on top was dimpling. I cut the paper towel like you said and just rewet it every 2 days or so. The baby hatched fine. The egg remained dimpled for the rest of incubation. At the very least I would keep putting the paper towel on the one egg.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PigsnPythons

I had the same thing happen with my first clutch last summer. The other eggs looked fine, but the egg stuck on top was dimpling. I cut the paper towel like you said and just rewet it every 2 days or so. The baby hatched fine. The egg remained dimpled for the rest of incubation. At the very least I would keep putting the paper towel on the one egg.

---

The only problem with the wet paper towel on the egg, is that it doesn't allow the egg to breath.

I keep my thermostat probe inside one of the egg boxes (per Kevin McCurley's method), and I incubate at 89, and the eggs are at 89. I agree with others that I'd be very concerned with eggs reading 94 degrees.

Like others have mentioned 94 is way too hot. Now that it is summer I have turned my incubator down to 87.5 to allow for heating up during the day. Short spikes of 94 are OK but continually being that high is too hot.

Are you egg tubs sealed? If you keep the egg box air tight the humidity should remain constant through out the box. Eggs shouldnt dimple much until that last couple of weeks of incubation.

Yea, yesterday was the first time I checked the temps in the tub and eggs. I didn't know the temps would get so high in the tub, so I lowered the temps to 88 in the incubator. Only reason I'm using a small tub is because I have them in a hovabator and there's not a lot of room in there for a bigger tub.

Are you using a thermostat other than the one that came with the hovabator?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

Are you using a thermostat other than the one that came with the hovabator?

---

No. I have no need too. My temps stay at what I set them at. Sometimes they fluctuate a degree or two, but barely ever.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BallPython17

No. I have no need too. My temps stay at what I set them at. Sometimes they fluctuate a degree or two, but barely ever.

---

I would be careful there. Hovabators are notorious for having crap thermostat wafers. If that thing fails "on" you will cook the eggs. I wouldn't trust anything less than a good proportional thermostat with my eggs (or my animals). Helix or Herpstat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BallPython17

No. I have no need too. My temps stay at what I set them at. Sometimes they fluctuate a degree or two, but barely ever.

---

I've heard a lot of horror stories of the wafer thermostat getting stuck on "on" and cooking the eggs (essentially killing them). The fact that your eggs are actually at 94 with that thermostat only is concerning.

Hopefully your eggs will be fine, but you may wish to invest in a quality thermostat for future clutches.

I would have to agree with Jamie and Robin here it is VERY important to be able to provide proper temps during incubation, and for that you cannot relay on your hovabator wafers, you need to invest in a reliable thermostat that will control your temps.

Just think that it would be very sad to lose your clutch simply because of an unreliable piece of equipment.

I have too heard horror stories about hovabator, people have lost their entire clutch because of them so I would definitely recommend you to order a t-stat today and have it ship to you ASAP

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jglass38

I would be careful there. Hovabators are notorious for having crap thermostat wafers. If that thing fails "on" you will cook the eggs. I wouldn't trust anything less than a good proportional thermostat with my eggs (or my animals). Helix or Herpstat.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

I've heard a lot of horror stories of the wafer thermostat getting stuck on "on" and cooking the eggs (essentially killing them). The fact that your eggs are actually at 94 with that thermostat only is concerning.

Hopefully your eggs will be fine, but you may wish to invest in a quality thermostat for future clutches.

---

Nah. I'm not too worried. Anyways this is the only clutch im going to have in it. I'm looking to buy a bigger incubator for my BP's. I just don't know which one to get. But also my hovabator doesn't go over 91 degrees. Idk why tho.