Condensation is bad for eggs, but how?

[elevatethis]

Some of us were also talking of occasional drip, not constantly falling drops.

A few drops on occasion, will not hurt eggs.

A constant drip, well, that's not occasional. Is it?

Now you are backtracking a little....you said before:

They are laid in the rainy season, they get wet in the wild and do just fine. A little water won't hurt them, just don't submerge them.

Big difference from saying "a few drops on occasion" and may be misleading or confusing to a new keeper posing the question.

Moreover, I would bet that a lot of eggs in the wild don't "do just fine." I haven't seen any studies but would guess that eggs in the wild don't have anywhere near the hatch rate that they do in captivity. Wild eggs are subject to predation, weather, and other things that aren't factors in captivity.

Not trying to pick apart your words, its just that words need to be chosen carefully and consistently when giving advice on message boards.....

[MarkS]

Some of us were also talking of occasional drip, not constantly falling drops.

A few drops on occasion, will not hurt eggs.

A constant drip, well, that's not occasional. Is it?

Define occasional. Once an hour? Once a day? Once a week? How much is too much? I'm sure I had plenty of eggs get dripped on once in a while that hatched just fine, I also had eggs that I know were being dripped on that died. My point is, if you cover them up, they don't get dripped on.

Mark

[wilomn]

Now you are backtracking a little....you said before:



Big difference from saying "a few drops on occasion" and may be misleading or confusing to a new keeper posing the question.

Moreover, I would bet that a lot of eggs in the wild don't "do just fine." I haven't seen any studies but would guess that eggs in the wild don't have anywhere near the hatch rate that they do in captivity. Wild eggs are subject to predation, weather, and other things that aren't factors in captivity.

Not trying to pick apart your words, its just that words need to be chosen carefully and consistently when giving advice on message boards.....

You are absolutely correct. I did not use the best wording I could have and will try to keep such instances to a minimum.

[elevatethis]

Ball python eggs are pretty resilient...I wish I could find the picture I took last year of a clutch where I had to incubate a slug because it was stuck to a good egg. Throughout the process, it molded beyond recognition, but I got a great picture of this perfect 1/4" space of air between the seemingly random spread of mold and the surface of the egg. The mold grew all around it but due to the eggs active immune system, never actually touched the egg itself.

The bowl-top idea was great, and I'm sure that someone could engineer a lid that basically raised the ceiling in the center of the box in order to direct any moisture to the outer areas of the egg box.

The easier way, of course, is to avoid condensation altogether. This is another reason why I like the substrate method better than the no-substrate way - with substrate, I can have a much greater thermal mass in the egg box, which stabilizes the temperature inside the egg box much more so than what the no-substrate method would do. Water is a great conductor of heat and fluctuates in temperature much more so than 3-4 lbs of vermiculite.

[elevatethis]

You are absolutely correct. I did not use the best wording I could have and will try to keep such instances to a minimum.

Nothing particularly wrong with what you said, just pointing out that I wasn't surprised that someone freaked out on you over it.

[Freakie_frog]

Brad I will tell you that I was having a bad problem with condensation at the front of the tub but not at the back. I struggled to get it to level out. After installing a fan angled in the top to better circulate the air. with in 15 minutes of the fan being installed the front of the tub was .5 -.25 degrees differance and the condensation is non existent. I also put a bowl of water in the incubator. I put the bowl in cause being from the south I understand how humidity can play into maintaining temps. so now my incubator is running 88.9-88.0 degrees at 75% RH and the tub is 88.5 degrees with 99% RH and no condensation. I have seen first hand that with a little tweaking you can eliminate condensation all together.

Just my limited very limited input

[elevatethis]

Interesting point with the humidity in the air of the incubator vs. the air inside a sealed egg box.

Many of us using sealed egg boxes probably have very humid boxes, but very dry air in the interior of the incubator in which the boxes are placed.

I hadn't thought of considering the behavior of very dry air vs. humid air. Sounds good in theory, if humid air holds more heat than very dry air, then a humid incubator would hold more steady temps.

The only thing that comes to mind is what effect that humidity would have long term on any heating elements, wiring, or other electrical devices...

[Freakie_frog]

Well the humidity in the bator I am seeing isn't any greater than we see environmentally here in the South during the long summer months or that a coastal city would have so I don't think that it would pose any long term effects. I would be concerned if water was collecting on the elements but so far so good.

[Tosha_Mc]

Seems like there might be something you could put on the lid to keep the condensation from building = kind of like a no fog mirror. Or perhaps just tape a paper towel to the top.

[Freakie_frog]

some kind of like a no fog mirror.

Thats done by adding flex watt behind the mirror.