I think my eggs are dying.

[mechnut450]

i love the egg crat my only problem is if my eggs are not stuck together there is always one that like to roll around when I move the tub ( to check he humidity , or look in to see if i got mold). and it a pain to get them to stay upright so I take a little verm and put on top to act as aplacement holder.

I might try next year some egg foam ontop of the cratting and use water only. ( or better yet if they do great this year try a single egg un a tub and just have wet towel on the heat source to give me humidity since it runs down the doors and back on the flex ..

[dr del]

Hi,

I think the results are in but wanted some confirmation.

This is egg 3 six days ago when this began;







Four days ago;



This is it today;







The egg is sweating and noticeably less firm than the others and no matter what I do I can no longer see veins - though I can see some darker areas.

I think it is an ex-egg.

But the grate did arrive this morning so I replaced the metal temp stuff and can at least warn others not to make the same mistake I did in the future.


dr del

[WingedWolfPsion]

I would definitely use some of the athlete's foot powder on the remaining eggs. I'm sorry you lost one--the others are obviously still alive, so there's always hope.
Definitely a warning taken about substrateless incubation--watch the water level, and no splashing!

[reptidude1]

Hi, I hope they make it, and best of luck to you, being a novice ant this being my first year of breading i do have a question though. ive noticed you turned the egg over to show the bottom of it to us, but i read to not turn the egg after it has been laid or the air bubble inside will rupture?

[dr del]

Hi,

There is a risk of tearing veins loose from the inside of the shell I think?

But to be honest I was carefull and slow the first time for treating them with the powder and notsomuch today.

Egg number 3 is the only one that still has problems with mould as far as I can tell.

This is day 30 for the clutch so I'm hoping no further interaction will be needed once I toss this egg.


dr del

[J.Vandegrift]

well I had some bad luck, used perlite with water 1/4 the way up in substrate eggs still got wet ! went green.

Did you put anything between the eggs and the perlite? The perlite will soak up the water and make the eggs too wet if you let the eggs come in contact with it. The only reason for perlite with this method is to keep the water from sloshing around when you move the box. The eggs should not be anywhere near it.

[A.VinczeBPs]

Not sure why it started, very sorry to hear it.

However, I disagree with your picture taking, you turned the egg upside-down...that's, as I've always been taught, very bad. You can detach the yolk.
(I could be wrong, but I heard it from quite a few breeders)

Sorry to hear though, really sucks. Hope the others are doing well, keep the bottoms dry!

[dr del]

Hi,

And the downward spiral coontinues.

The second egg is now looking dubious and it is firmly attatched to the one remaining good egg.

I treated with the foot powder again but I'm starting to think this clutch is a goner.










dr del

[Animals As Leaders]

Hey dr del,

Just wanted to say that i used your hot glue technique for thermometer probe and I love the idea, and I was actually off a little more then I thought in terms of what they were really sitting on so thanks so much for the great advice!!

BUT!

Why are you incubating like this? Why not use some verm? This is my first breeding season and my clutch is 24 days old and looking great with just that. I am just wondering why your using this method for incubating seems kinda weird looking explain please lol

[dr del]

Hi,

I used vermiculite with the eggs buried in it for all my clutches before this but noticed that the verm got a little too wet near the end of incubation beacuse of the constantly 100% humidity from the resevoir of water.

Since this wet substrate happens with the substrateless method as well I figured the idea of keeping the eggs suspended off the medium would solve it.

I then goofed with the method of achieving that.

If I had used the right type of grating from the start I think all would have been well.


dr del