So in my last two years of reading this forum I missed this post. As I said in my intro I read almost everyday but only what shows up to those not logged in so it must have slipped by. My kids just asked me "did that guy ever tell how he hatched snakes fast?", then I found this post. I'm surprised you got so few responses. As I also said I'm a koi guy so fish stuff is second nature to me.

I think you've got some great ideas here for an incubator. Have you seen the needlepoint plastic mesh people put in their egg boxes over the eggcrate (I'll have some pictures up soon)? It has ~3/16" inch holes so snakes don't crawl through the eggcrate. I realize for this discussion to really continue/take-off you need to use it for another season and report your success/failure or someone else has to build the incubator and report their findings.

The thing I really like about it is the humidity control and the fresh air being pumped in. I have a C Serpents incubator, so I do the Press & Seal route to keep humidity up. This year I have an egg that smells bad but candles good and I think getting fresh air to it could make the difference. The problem is piping air tubes to each egg box would be difficult. Your design is sort of an all-or-nothing approach.

Last year (maybe the year before) I saw one of the big breeders take out all the substrate out of his egg boxes and put a swamp cooler in his walk in incubator. The swamp cooler provides all the humidity and heat was provided separately, I wonder how his eggs did? That, to me, is a variant of your design. He probably didn't pump in fresh air.

Have you thought of using a 6 quart box to keep the eggs separate, but making the walls and lid swiss-cheese with holes so air will flow through it?