How early do you set up your egg tubs?

[Adam Chandler]

My incubator is all set up. I ran it for a couple weeks and got the temps where I wanted them then turned it off. How soon should I set up the egg tubs with vermiculite? My girl's follicles are a little smaller than 1/2 dollars right now. I was planning on doing it about a month after ovulation, and running the incubator with the tubs in it with vermiculite till I have eggs. Does this seem too soon? Will the vermiculite be adversely affected by this? What's everyone else's procedure?

Thanks!

First off kudos for pre-checking your incubator.

For me, at the moment I use Hatch-rite, which is pre mixed with water. So I don't break the seal of the bag and fill the tub until I have eggs under one of my girls.
However, I am planning on switching to perlite in the future. So I talked to a veteran breeder about this topic. Here is what Colin Weaver said about this:

I pre-mix the dry ingredients in one of the 110 quart Sterilite boxes from Target and then scoop it out as I need it. I don't add water until close to the day I will actually use it.

So I can't imagine anything bad happening to the vermiculite by putting it in the tubs now. I just wouldn't add the water until you have eggs to put in there. Also just to be safe I would seal the egg tub with Press & Seal while the dry vermiculite is waiting in your incubator (you can also use that same Press & Seal to seal the tub once the eggs are in there to help maintain humidity).