Humidity in egg tubs: how much is okay?

[Jessica Loesch]

I have heard the tilt method works well.

Honestly, I would just throw light diffuser in the tub and not worry about your substrate as Rich was suggesting, you don't need it to be perfect then. And if you tilt the tubs, the droplets will avoid the eggs. And nothing will matter anymore, except your big white eggs!

[RichsBallPythons]

When tilting the tubs/incubator you will run into the risk of your eggs moving and rolling. Which will kill them if its been longer than 24 hours after they were laid.



I put 3" of vermiculite/perlite in 6qt tub. Fill it with water till its soaked. Use 2 pieces of light diffuser so it dont sink and get eggs wet. Put lid on and thats it. If still getting condensation then its a incubator problem having cool/hot spots.

Also when a egg gets wet it can sometimes cool it down and cause it to sweat which is bad.

[SquamishSerpents]

i am in the process of building the biggie cooler incubator, i'd rather not have the headache of checking the tubs every day.

just heading to the store to get some sealed water bottles. we have some frozen ones we use as ice packs when camping, but i don't want to run the risk of springing a leak and mixing electricity & water...

i'll post pics later.

[SquamishSerpents]

well i had to buy chilled water bottles, as that's all they had. so they're in the sink with warm water right now to heat them up to room temp.

a question i thought of earlier:

when i found that the female had laid her eggs, she was only curled around 4 of them. one was outside of her little "nest." they all candled okay, but does this mean she knows it's going to go bad? unfortunately i didn't think to mark the one that rolled out.

obviously i am incubating all of them regardless, but i'm just curious if anybody has ever noticed that roll-outs go bad.

[ChuckSM]

When my female laid 9 eggs, she kicked one out as well but it looked just as healthy as the rest. It candled fine and the baby is just as the others. I can only think that maybe she thought this would be a problem child and she was picking favorites

well i had to buy chilled water bottles, as that's all they had. so they're in the sink with warm water right now to heat them up to room temp.

a question i thought of earlier:

when i found that the female had laid her eggs, she was only curled around 4 of them. one was outside of her little "nest." they all candled okay, but does this mean she knows it's going to go bad? unfortunately i didn't think to mark the one that rolled out.

obviously i am incubating all of them regardless, but i'm just curious if anybody has ever noticed that roll-outs go bad.

[SquamishSerpents]

LOL! too funny

UGH after all the fussing and building a new incubator, i'm STILL getting way too much condensation on the lid! the eggs are still in vermiculite, but it's not the verm that's the problem. it's the condensation on the lid. i have no idea what i'm doing wrong.

the cooler is as airtight as can be with the wires sticking out. i've got a heat mat, water bottles, and i even did the vermiculite with less water this time.

250g vermiculite to 200g of water. what gives? i'm getting frustrated!

[RichsBallPythons]

Are you Just putting the lid on the tub, nothing else. Ive never had this problem.

If need be, you can put paper towel over the tub top and then put lid on over that. Change it every so often

[SquamishSerpents]

yep, just the lid. i'm in the process of uploading some photos

[SquamishSerpents]

the eggs have snowflakes on them...hope they still hatch out!

i just want to know WTF i am doing wrong to be getting so much condensation. those are the eggs right when i put them in. i'll get some new photos of what the lid looks like today.

[RichsBallPythons]

Are you putting the T-stat probe inside the egg tub?

I never put it inside as the outside air will warm the inside of tubs as well. That could be why its cooling down and heating back up causing the condensation.