Moldy rotten egg.

[Bogertophis]

And to be clear, I see nothing wrong with using the light deflector...it's a good idea, just another way of making sure the eggs aren't too moist, especially if you
aren't sure what the ratio of water to substrate should be.

As Deborah said- an egg can go bad quickly or wait until the "11th hour"...it doesn't mean it was incubated incorrectly, some just don't make it...it's nature's way.

[Godzilla78]

All the eggs seem to be doing well. I did read the write up of Debs, but I also read many other write ups by experienced and professional breeders, and there are many variations of incubation methods.

I followed the instructions I read (in more than one place)of 1 part weight in water and 1 part weight in vermiculite, but it still seemed a bit moist.
If I did anything wrong, I suspect it might be the amount of water, but so far all the other eggs are ok, and maybe it’s all just the normal course of action.

I also considered maternal incubation, but worried that it would prove to difficult for me to keep the humidity high enough and such.

[rufretic]

For the sake of discussion & for what it's worth:
I haven't read Deb's write-up on incubating snake eggs, & don't doubt it's excellence for a moment, but I have successfully incubated many clutches of snake
eggs (none were BPs, if that matters?) and I never once used a light deflector. My eggs always sat right in the damp vermiculite & I didn't have any problem
with eggs "rotting". I hope this forum doesn't try to emulate the Facebook groups I've heard so much about, where there's only one right way or the highway?

I 100% agree with you, there is not just one way to do things. It wasn't a matter of right or wrong, my point was just that he is a regular here and I believe this is his first year breeding so I was surprised he didn't use the helpful write up here. Obviously eggs can be incubated perfectly in the correct substrate mix, it's much closer to nature's way but you must get the mix correct or it can ruin the eggs. For a beginner it's much safer to just use a light deflector because it has no chance of hurting anything but will save your butt if you mess up the mix. Imo 1 to 1 could be too wet and could very well be an issue. If you use the light deflector, you could even do straight water and as long as you have them propped up out of it, there is no chance of your eggs being too wet, I'm sure we can all agree there is no such thing as too humid for incubating BP eggs. It's just a matter of keeping them out of direct contact with the water. The light deflector eliminates the chance of this being an issue so I believe it is a great precaution to use. That certainly doesn't mean it has to be done that way, I know many eggs have been incubated successfully without one but I don't know of any reason not to use one so for a beginner especially, it seems like a good idea to use one as a safe guard.

[JodanOrNoDan]

If you use the light deflector, you could even do straight water and as long as you have them propped up out of it, there is no chance of your eggs being too wet

Yeah, I use zero substrate. Just the deflector and water. The only drawback is the water moving around when you mess with the tubs.

[Godzilla78]

Where is the best place to get the deflector screens?

[Bogertophis]

Where is the best place to get the deflector screens?

I think home improvement stores, where they sell fluorescent lights & all?

[rufretic]

I think home improvement stores, where they sell fluorescent lights & all?

Yep!

They come in 2'x4' so you need to cut them which is a pita because they are brittle so just be careful. It's good though because you can make the perfect size for your tub.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Where is the best place to get the deflector screens?

Home depot or Lowe's in the light section, light diffuser come in 4 x 2 sheets allowing you to make a good number of tubs.

[Godzilla78]

It amazes me that someone that posts here as much as you wouldn't just follow Debs write up on how to make a fool proof egg tub, might of saved you some headaches and possibly a disaster. I'm hoping for the best for you but from now on you might just want to follow her write up EXACTLY. It's been proven to work perfectly for years for many people and really is fool proof. Every time I've seen someone here with incubation problems, it is always a different setup than what's in the write up and I'm not sure if it's because they have not read it or just decided to try their own way but it doesn't make any sense to me, if something has been proven to work perfectly every time, why complicate things? It's hard to miss but if by chance you did miss it, it's a sticky in this section.

Don't get me wrong, of course you could still get a moldy egg following her write up so I'm not saying that's why it happened, but people do seem to run into these situations more often when putting the eggs right in the substrate. When you put the eggs on a light deflector, it eliminates running into an issue with the substrate being too wet which is a possible cause for eggs rotting. This is just an observation from looking at your tubs in the other 27 egg post that you obviously didn't follow the write up and I'm surprised since your a regular here.

I also agree with her advice not to try removing the rotting egg, if anything you may just want to redo the tub according to the wright up just in case your substrate is too wet and causing the problem. Then just leave them. If there is a problem with the way you have the tub setup it could lead to more bad eggs but if your tub is setup right, the good eggs don't get affected by the bad one.

Good luck with the rest of the incubation and other clutches.

I don’t think you know as much about it to be this condescending.
Justin Kobylka has a wee bit more experience than you, and watching his latest video, he uses no deflector, his $3,000 eggs are sitting right on the vermiculite.

Also, the mold stopped spreading. I am going to check again, but I think it was possibly condensation drip from the Saran Wrap, that god on the egg that molded. I put some dry vermiculite on the top of the moldy and egg, and it dried it up and halted the mold from spreading so far. The rotten egg looks better, but I’m mainly concerned about the two eggs joined to it, that can still be saved.

[rufretic]

Justin Kobylka has a wee bit more experience than you, and watching his latest video, he uses no deflector, his $3,000 eggs are sitting right on the vermiculite.

Justin Kobylka is pretty far from a beginner and has learned along the way what works for him. He obviously has his mix down so he would have no need for the light deflector.
I still consider myself a beginner and have used a deflector for all my clutches and luckily have not experienced one bad egg so far. I don't know if my mix has been good or not but never had to be concerned about it because I used the deflector.
My point still stands, there is no reason for a beginner not to use one.
I'm glad your remaining eggs seem to be doing well and have nothing against you, like I said, I'm a beginner as well. I just feel Debs write up is a great help to the community here and think if people here decide to try breeding, it should be taken advantage of so hopefully they run into as few problems as possible.