Incubator progress

[Bistem]

very good research Sky!

Bistem, can u post links to where u ordered that bottle of pop and fidget spinner please?

anyways that incubator is an impressive size! wow i'm jealous lol. did your LED come w/ a remote control? i love using the strobe mode on my lights lol.

LOL....Hey....no checking out all the junk on the desk. If I had taken the picture from farther away, you would have mentioned the computer monitor. How many people use a 50" 4K TV for a monitor?

The LED's did come with a remote. Going to wait till they hatch then give them a disco show of colors.

As for the bottle of pop. I need a bunch of empty 2 litre bottles to put in the bottom of the incubator. Cant beat 57 cents per bottle of WalMart's brand of soda and eventually I will have enough bottles. I laid 2 bottles in the bottom and they will go 2 bottles deep and I dont know yet how many wide. I will eventually cover the entire floor of the thing with them.

[Bistem]

I have two pretty good size fans in there too and it's OK, I just have to be sure to slide the egg boxes back away from the front glass door.

You'll have to be sure to set it up and let it run for a few days to equilibrate, then take a temperature probe and place it in a different spot every day and 'map' the whole incubator to see if there are any cold spots. It took me a few weeks to get everything under control.

Thanks for the info on your experiences with yours.
I have Desk fan on the top shelf near the back. It is probably an 8" fan. It is pointed up and back kind of blowing into the top rear corner of the cabinet. If feels like this approach makes the hot air roll down the back wall, across the floor, then back up the front glass.

18 feet was enough heat tape to go down both sides, across the floor, and across the celing. I I plugged it in and ran it until it came up to temperature before finishing my wire routing. It ran at 100% power for about 30 min to reach temp and all 3 of my digital thermometers inside read the same top to bottom.

I have it on again now and once it settles again, I will grab a picture showing what percent the Herpstat is running at to maintain. My 3 thermometers are magnetic so I will be sure to move them around in there to check for cooler spots.

[Bistem]

Ok, Im calling it Done.

[treaux]

Looks great! My only worry is that fan may be too much even on a low setting. Might pull some humidity off your egg tubs.

[NJ Balls]

Looks great! My only worry is that fan may be too much even on a low setting. Might pull some humidity off your egg tubs.

I agree that the fan may be to much you don't need a lot to move the air around inside the incubator.

I used the fan from an old computer and an old 3V cell phone charger and it was free nothing beats recycling.

[Bistem]

Looks great! My only worry is that fan may be too much even on a low setting. Might pull some humidity off your egg tubs.

Thanks for your input. You may be right but I’m just wondering how it would lower the humidity inside the tubs when they will be sealed with press and seal. Correct me if I am thinking of this incorrectly. It’s not a big ordeal for me to change this and computer fans wouldn’t limit my top shelf space like this thing does.

[Hannahshissyfix]

Thanks for your input. You may be right but I’m just wondering how it would lower the humidity inside the tubs when they will be sealed with press and seal. Correct me if I am thinking of this incorrectly. It’s not a big ordeal for me to change this and computer fans wouldn’t limit my top shelf space like this thing does.

I agree, Id switch out the fan too. Ive also never needed to use press n seal in my boxes to keep humidity on point. Seems it leads to more issues with condensation dripping = wet spots and mold.

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[Bistem]

I have been slowly drinking up a lot of Walmart brand soft drinks mostly just to get the empty 2 litre bottles for the incubator. Only got 6 in there now but from looking at them on the floor, and buying more tubs today, if I fill each shelf with 8 tubs I will have room for 2 water bottles on each side of the incubator shelves and 4 in the middle added to the 20 bottles that fit on the floor that would give me 44 of the 2 litre bottles in a 40 cu ft space. Is there a meaning for Overkill on temperature buffer bottles

Mind you. these are 15 qt tubs so that I should be able to fit any size clutch they throw into a single tub.

[treaux]

I agree, Id switch out the fan too. Ive also never needed to use press n seal in my boxes to keep humidity on point. Seems it leads to more issues with condensation dripping = wet spots and mold.

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This. I try not to use press and seal because if it's fully sealed, you can get condensation forming on it that can drop on the eggs. A little airflow helps keep it from getting condensation while still being high humidity. With too much airflow around the tubs, it may pull some of that humidity out of the tubs as well and lead to too dry conditions. A single low speed 120mm computer fan would probably be plenty to keep the air moving inside your incubator.

[cchardwick]

Not sure how important it is with snakes but if you don't have enough fresh air coming in with chicken eggs they will die from suffocation. I tried paper towels over the top of the shoe box then put the lid on, it was too much and the paper towels got soaked, some even started to mold by themselves without eggs in the box after a couple weeks. If water drips on the eggs they can die too. So I folded up paper towels into half and then half again and put them under the lid on each end. Works pretty good, but it seems I didn't have quite enough humidity so I added sphagnum moss (soaked and squeezed to dampness) in the box around the eggs (but not touching). Seems to be about perfect. I use a plastic grate with square holes on top of pearlite.

It seemed like the eggs in the rear most part of the egg box were dimpling a bit too soon, that's when I added the damp moss. I'd suggest adding water and letting is sit for a week or two, then you'll know how the humidity is in the box. I also have quite a bit of condensation around the glass door in front, I like to wipe that off when I check the eggs every day. Some people suggest checking twice a day, I like to check just once to keep most of the heat and humidity in there. When you check them be sure to wipe any condensation off of the top of the egg box under the lid. I also like to separate any that are molding or smell bad to isolate them and keep them from ruining other good eggs.

Here's another neat trick you can do, add the substrate and water to the proper level and then the eggs. Then weigh the whole box (excluding paper towels or anything you will replace as you go). Then after a few weeks you can weigh again and add the difference in additional water to keep it just right.

Good luck!!