Incubation temperatures help

[frajdaar]

Hey everyone, i have a question about incubation temps. I read a few posts regarding the incubation temps. I know mostly everyone incubates their eggs at 89-90 degrees. I was wondering is there a problem incubating your eggs at a lower temp like between 85 and 90 degrees? Please help thanks.

[satomi325]

You can incubate at a lower temp, but it will take your eggs longer to develop and hatch. Try to keep your temps stable as possible.
The 5 degree swing isn't recommended.

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[roosterman2173]

I cook mine at 90 and they are normally out the egg by day 55

[RandyRemington]

For years I did 88.6. Don't know why. Last year I changed to 87 because I had a shot at caramel and one of the many mythologies of how to avoid kinks in caramels is lower incubation temp (and I was willing to try them all, including rubbing a rabbit foot if I thought it might help). I had some regulation trouble with a new incubator and background temps in an out building but had a good hatch with only one of three caramels with a very slight tail tip kink. My stripes weren’t the best and even though I’ve received feedback that temp doesn’t matter I’d like to try them warmer next year. I did have one missing eye baby out of 70 or so but might have just been a fluke. Anyway, my point is I think they are tolerant of a fair range. If I come up with the money to switch my rack over to more zones with proportional thermostats I might go all maternal this year except for one cool artificial incubator for caramel and one warm end for stripes. Of course if I get good results it will not really be scientific since I’ll not have enough or want to try some cool incubation stripes and hot incubation caramels. That’s how these myths get started, something works and no one is willing to really test it.

[FireStorm]

We used maternal incubation last season and will again this year, and our temps are lower. 85F is pretty much the highest, and we had no issues. We saw hatch times ranging from 60 to 79 days, and hatchling weights ranging from 75 to 91g. I do agree that the 5 degree swing is too much though. My theory is that the eggs can tolerate a wide range of temps, as long as the temps are fairly stable. I think its the big fluctuations that cause problems. IMO, that is partially why people seem to have more trouble with the smaller incubators. It takes a short amount of time for a big fluctuation to happen.

[West Coast Jungle]

I run my temps closer to 89-90 during the cooler months and a bit cooler around 88 during warmer months to allow for room heating up. remember incubators heat up but don't cool down.