Unprepared For Eggs

[Penultimate]

I had been pairing a few females very lightly months ago, but I stopped breeding early in the season, and the females all looked to have reabsorbed. I never saw ovulation, color changes, bowl wrapping, nothing. So I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when one of the nicest females decided to lay eggs last night. This is only my second clutch ever, and because I didn't expect it, I never set up an incubator. I have one, but it's being used for quail at the moment, and the temperature isn't exactly... consistent. In hindsight, I really should have expected this, seeing as this happened with my first clutch too, but of course I was dumb and didn't. Hindsight is a powerful thing. Hopefully I learn this time...

I let the female maternally incubate last time because I was going on vacation for two weeks or so literally the morning after she laid eggs. However, since I wasn't there to help the humidity, six out of her seven eggs dried out. The seventh egg did hatch into a lovely, healthy lesser bee. Right now I'm letting this female sit on her eggs too, a healthy looking clutch of about seven eggs, and I've misted her tub and added some damp moss since I had humidity issues last time with a female maternally incubating. She's doing a good job and has stayed coiled, but now I'm wondering what on Earth I should do. I do not have the time or materials to build an incubator right this instant or anything. Should I get a hovabator? If so, how would I set it up for this? Would it be okay to let her incubate her eggs until next week so I can get some heat tape and build something for those eggs? Would that hurt the eggs? How should I best keep everything going okay until I take the eggs?

I am so sorry for the questions. I really should have been better prepared, especially after being caught by surprise on the last clutch as well. I want to do my best for a successful hatch rate, though. Hopefully I learn this time, but until next time, I have these eggs to deal with right now, so I'd best figure it out. Thanks in advance for the help.

[JodanOrNoDan]

If it was me, I think I would just leave her on the eggs. It takes about a half hour to build an incubator but it may take you a week to get the stuff to do it. I would not buy one. The "affordable" ones always seem to have issues.

[Penultimate]

Okay. What do I need to do to make sure everything goes well? I've raised humidity and added moss, but that is all. I checked the temperature of the top egg with a temperature gun, and it's at about 77-80.5 degrees F. Is that okay? What humidity range should I be going for? Also, this female is a live feeder. Will she be okay catching live meals while on eggs? Might be a dumb question. I'm just worried about a rat clawing up an egg. My last female with eggs ate frozen thawed. If I were to get the stuff to build an incubator by next week, would you recommend switching them over or no? I'd be concerned due to the lack of time to test an incubator, but I'm not sure what to do anyway.

[hollowlaughter]

She may not feed during the MI but as long as she was at a good weight before laying she has enough fat on her to forego food. Putting a live rodent in with eggs may cause issues, so I'd say hold off personally.

Moss is a good idea, and if you had known this was coming preparing a box slightly bigger than her and the clutch would've been great so you can use the concept of a moist hide for MI as well to maintain humidity. Just ring the moss around her as much as you can without bugging her, keep it damp but avoid getting the eggs wet.

Given the circumstance you're in right now, all I can think to do is keep a close eye on her humidity and heat (she laid where she thinks best for the eggs so make sure the temps stay where they're at) and sneak a probe in to check the egg temperature without bugging her as much as an IR thermometer would. That's all I've got.

[JodanOrNoDan]

Okay. What do I need to do to make sure everything goes well? I've raised humidity and added moss, but that is all. I checked the temperature of the top egg with a temperature gun, and it's at about 77-80.5 degrees F. Is that okay? What humidity range should I be going for? Also, this female is a live feeder. Will she be okay catching live meals while on eggs? Might be a dumb question. I'm just worried about a rat clawing up an egg. My last female with eggs ate frozen thawed. If I were to get the stuff to build an incubator by next week, would you recommend switching them over or no? I'd be concerned due to the lack of time to test an incubator, but I'm not sure what to do anyway.

I have not done this myself I have always incubated them myself, but there seem to be a few people here doing maternal this year. Hopefully a few will chime in.

My guesses would go like this...

Ambient cannot drop below 84. 77 egg temp is probably way too low.
Humidity I would start around 70% and continue to bump it up if I saw problems with the eggs and drop it if I saw problems with mamma.
I would under no circumstances put a live rat in there.

If you cannot hold the temps up you will have to build the incubator I would imagine.

[Penultimate]

I checked the female's hot spot, and it is lower than the rest of the rack, oddly enough. It's at like... 85 degrees or so. Ambient is only 75. The rest of the rack is the right temperature, and she isn't, which is very strange, but okay. Could I maybe move her entire tub to a warmer shelf, or is that a bad idea? I can't adjust the heat itself because the whole rack is on one strip of heat tape, and she's the only one that's too low. Also, I noticed she has two slugs in the clutch since she was half off of her eggs when I checked the temperature. Should I just... leave those? I can't exactly grab them with any ease. I'm not sure if she's even going to continue incubating them. She wasn't really coiled, so... Maybe I'm freaking out, but anyway.

I have a feeling I'm going to need to build that incubator. Turns out I have some extra heat tape here, I just looked, though it is the 11 inch. I do have extra dimmer switches, and I might be able to take the herpstat off of my corn snake and rainbow boa and replace it with dimmers or something. I might not be able to, though. Is there a good thermostat I can buy at home depot or something?

[JodanOrNoDan]

Nothing I know of at home depot. Warmer shelf may be better. I would look at moving some stuff around. 75 ambient isn't going to cut it. Minimum "digestion" temp for an adult is 84 so I wouldn't want to be be below that.

[nightwolfsnow]

11inch heat tape is fine for an incubator. I built one relatively cheap and easy, but you do need a good thermostat which you will probably have to order.

[wolfy-hound]

Remember you'll need to run that homemade incubator for a couple days to be certain the temps will hold stable. Don't panic.

Move the bin to where the temps are better. Don't try to feed mom while she's on the eggs. Try not to disturb her any more than absolutely needed, even if it's really really hard not to go peep in.

Maternal incubation can work just fine. I did a clutch that turned out lovely. You have time to get an incubator made and tested. Breathe. Calm. You can do this.

[MasonC2K]

Just wanted to point out that there is a sticky here about Maternal Incubation. So in case you missed it...