Substrate-less incubation

[Evan Jamison]

We used this method for a couple clutches this season with success (1 clutch hatched yesterday), and I'd like to share my experience, as well as hear from others that have tried this method.

I set up our "substrate-less" incubation box with about an inch-and-a-half of perlite, and a piece of egg-crate (the plastic type, also called light diffuser; home depot etc.) cut to fit on top of the perlite layer, and added water up to the level of the top of the perlite. The eggs are set onto the egg crate. The perlite acts as something for the egg crate to sit up out of the water, so any kind of spacer could be used as long as it keeps the water level below the egg crate. The perlite also acts as a baffle, so keeps the water from sloshing around if you need to move the eggs box.

The reason I like this method is that the eggs aren't in contact with the incubation medium, so the amount of water in the system doesn't matter, as long as the water level doesn't reach the egg. Also, if the egg box is not a closed system, or the egg box is opened frequently, there is still no worry that the humidity in the box will drop too low to keep the humidity up.

I set up our first few egg boxes this season the way I have usually set them up, perlite, vermiculite, and water. My incubation boxes are not air-tight, but the humidity in my incubator stays pretty high, so I usually don't have problems with water-loss from the egg boxes. One egg in our first clutch this season started to collapse quite a bit. All the other eggs in the clutch were in contact with the substrate, and were doing fine. The one that was collapsing was up out of the substrate. This makes me think I probably didn't add quite enough water to the incubation box when I set them up. This egg had collapsed quite a bit before I moved it into a substrate-less box, along with two others. The collapsed egg did not collapse any more, and the other two eggs stayed plump for the duration of incubation. They hatched the same day as the rest of the clutch. All the eggs in the other clutch we incubated using this method also stayed pretty plump until about a week before hatching, and all hatched successfully.

Has anyone else tried this incubation method? What were your experiences with it? I'd like to hear any comments about this method too.

-Evan