Temperatur in Incubator

[LilRobb]

Hmmm,

my incubator that is et up in a real hurry this morning only provides 28.5°C and fluctuates upwards to 29.9°C.

Will this be harmful for the eggs?

Can't find anything safe to have it heated up more...


Robb

[Chase13]

What are you using as an incubator? Is it home-made?

[LilRobb]

Yeah,

a homemade incubator - I made it for corn snakes and now am breeding Balls...

DANG, she laid the eggs just too early....


Robb

[LilRobb]

Any input for me???

Robb

[aaajohnson]

Do you have your probe in the container you are going to incubate in? That seems to help with the fluctuations. Also what kind of thermostat are you using?

Neil

[West Coast Jungle]

What's that in farenheit? Us yanks could help more if we could analyze your temps. Is ther a fan to even out temps?

[jpierdominici]

Gotta love surprises! We have our incubator set at 89-90 degrees with a fan to help even out the temps. Our's is a homemade job too....made out of an old refridgerator. So far (knock on wood) we haven't had any problems with it. Good luck!

[wcreptiles]

28.5C = 83.3F
29.9C = 85.8F

89F=31.6C

The temps are a little to a lot low for BP eggs, the two degree fluctuation in temperature is the least of your worries now. You need to raise the temperature to around 89F and then try to maintain a steady temperature. An incubator should maintain a +/- 0.5F or better without much problem with a decent proportional controller.

I have no experience with BP eggs incubating at 83-85F so I don't know if they will hatch or die. The last few degrees may be very important. Someone else may know the answer, I know the recommended temperature is around 89F.

[LilRobb]

Herpstat and additional Flexwatt arriving tomorrow.

In the meantime, let's keep our fingers crossed - I raised the temperature in the entire appt. and am around 87.5 in the incubator now.

Robb

[LilRobb]

Finally I found the problem with my incubator.

The thermostat probe was too close to the ground, measuring the high temps of the floor only...

I got that fixed...

Now,
some literature recommends to have the temps dropped over night to 27-28°C (81-82°F).
Any comments on that?

Second clutch to come REALLY soon.

Robb