Wow, I am really surprised by the number of people that have chimed in and said they did little to cool.
I'm so completely torn on the subject as to what's *RIGHT*
One the one hand: BP's do come from near the equator with minimal temp fluctuations. There is a rainy season from Oct-Nov, or somewhere in there, and this could likely affect the ground temperatures could it not? The fact they are near the equator leads me to believe a cooling period is not necessary.
On the other hand: The Barker's book speaks of the importance of cooling, and it speaks VOLUMES to it. They insist that heat is devastating at certain points of the reproductive cycle. Unfortunately there are no statistics on what temps lead to how many slugs, etc... And ALSO, is it not possible that the temps of 80 cool / 90 hot are actually a tad too warm (I looked up Ghana/Togo and it was something like temps of 72-90 during breeding season). And if so, then a cooling period is nothing more than us returning the BP's to the temp that nature intended (but we go higher to help growth and impede RIs).
Not to open a can of worms, but any thoughts????
JonV









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