Quote Originally Posted by PythonWallace View Post
I've never used a hova, but I've gotten emails from people who bought them and used them in previous years and said they were crap and they lost clutches. I've also never used the BAH thermostats, but have heard that they tend to get huge temp spikes and blast the heat. I would personally make a nice incubator with good insulation and use the Ranco. When you think about how valueble even a single clutch of eggs is, then realize that you will have your incubator forever, it's really worth doing it right the first time. Now, if you are just getting a clutch of normals and don't plan to do much more than that, you can get a hova and you might be okay, but If you do mind taking risks on your way to hatching out snakes, than I'd go with a more dependable method.
Ok cool, good to know. I'll probably get to work on my little DIY incubator soon. Hopefully I can get it up and tested soon. I'm thinking (don't know if this is going to work or not but) of taking basically the whole front of the door and cutting it out and replacing it with thick insulated plexi to allow some viewing and to make it easier to monitor temps without opening the door. I've got some extra 4" flexwatt kicking around so I'll probably use that to heat it.

And IMO any clutch of eggs is a valuable thing. I mean this is only going to be pastel X normal but I'm really hoping to have a good sized clutch and healthy babies and I know that proper incubation is key to that. I've played with the idea of maternal incubation also and I've done some research on it but I don't think I'd go with that just because of the extra stress on the mother and how incredibly precise you have to be in an environment that makes it difficult to be precise.