I'm presently incubating my 1st clutch of eggs (mojave x normal). I'm using a DIY incubator made out of a large Styrofoam box which is 1.5'' thick. The box is large enough to hold a single 16QT sterlite tub and have a few inches of spacing from the tub to the walls. I have 2x 24'' strips of 3'' flexwatt lining the bottom. I have water bottles on top of the heat tape and egg crate above them for the tub to rest one. The incubator is run with a herpstat t-stat set to 90 degrees. I also have 2 small fans plugged into the t-stat. The incubator is in my master bed room's closet. Presently we don't have the heater or AC on and its in the mid to high 60s in the house. I typically see the t-stat reading temps from 88.6-90.1 with 88.8-9 being the average.
I've had this incubator running for several weeks before it was in use and set the egg tub in it after post ovulation shed. I had condensation issues from the start. I'm afraid to say I didn't try to resolve this much till eggs where in place.
I'm using a few inches of 2:1 coarse vermiculite to perilite by volume. I tried the normal recommendation 1:1 ratio of media to water by weight but it felt pretty dry to me. I ended up just putting the media in a container with a couple inches of water letting the media soak for a few seconds and then grabbing handfuls media wringing out as much water as possible and then adding it to the egg tub. I made sure the clump help in place once I opened my hand and broke up when poked.
I was looking at several threads yesterday and decided to take up RichsBallPythons advice and remove the press n seal as I'm using substrateless incubation. I also added a couple cupfuls of water as Rich keeps him media wet as the lids are not air tight. When I checked this morning I had a fine mist forming on the bottom of a lid. My lid is clamped shut (one clamp on each side) should I not be using the provided clamps that are installed to the tubs? I decided to put the probe into the egg tub this morning to see if that helps. I already had a whole in place for it so I didn't have to open the container just remove the tape covering the whole in the egg tub long enough to insert the probe.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Xavier
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