Wich model is the better incubator..

[Dom]

Hey - any input anyone???

I am planning on building a new incubator for this year.. I have narrowed it down to 3 choices.. (incubating python eggs)

Let me know in your oppinion wich one would work best .. why and if u had any experience with it..

(My choice for egg boxes are 3 inches of verculite ... the plastic grill on top and the eggs over the plastic .. not touching the vermiculite)

Incubator #1

The common water heater in a styro cooler with a suspended egg box in it .. Used it last year with success .. Possible fan if I do this again .. *Humidity everywhere.. hard on fan .. had leak problems last year .. had to throw out at the end of the incubation.



Incubator #2

Build a wooden box essentially .. Use heat tape and a fan to heat the box.. *no humidity in the box

Have the eggbox simply put in the wooden box.. only one or two holes.. No water.. just the damp vermiculite..




Incubator # 3

This is the more complexe but the one I like the most..

Wooden box with heat tape and fan again .. No humdity

Then DOUBLE containers.. The first one is fully cealed with no air holes and water at the bottom .. The inside container has a few holes.. and either the vermiculite and plastic grill or just the grill for a no substrate idea..



These are my top 3 choices ..


I am leaning for the idea #3 .. but what are your thoughts??

Suggestions?

Its gonna be done in the days or so to follow ... Ill let u know what i did..

[MouseKilla]

I am hopefully going to try to incubate my first clutch this season and I think I'm personally going to make every effort to use as little equipment as possible. Of course I'll be dealing with corn eggs instead of pythons so it's obviously a little different.

I think what I'm gonna try is just damp vermiculite, a rubbermaid and a heated room. I don't see any reason that it won't work as long as I manage to sustain pretty stable levels of appropriate heat and humidity. I don't know too much about hatching pythons as I said so I don't know if the extra gear is necessary for them.

I do like the idea of a wooden box though, it would be great for slowing evaporation.

[boydsnakes]

Will a hobavator not work?That is what i use for my python eggs,,,leo eggs.....Not that expensive either about $75.00 U.S and up
No worries,, no building,,no guessing
Thats my opinion though

[jjnnbns]

As far as hovobator goes, are they a good incubator, better than building? There is one on LLLReptile for like 40 bucks. Would something like this work for Jungle Carpet Python eggs?

http://lllreptile.com/v2/images/catalog/product/incubator_thermal.JPG

http://lllreptile.com/v2/content/catalog/?product_string=thermal-hova-bator-incubator-package

[Dom]

JJNNBNS:

Yeah they do but not well enough in my oppinion .. I had a hovabator and sold it .. U dont get it big enough ..

One clutch of coastals .. 35-50 eggs.. Would that fit? how about 2 or 3 clutch .. How about Rock pythons eggs a good 40 eggs.. theres no way those incubators can be used for that .. Even with the extra extender ..

Personally I don't trust them and have heard many horror stories about hovabators so I choose not to use em .

I was just checking to see if anyone had an oppinion on wich is better .. No offense but I am not planning on buying one .. I am building .. Its not a matter of money but a matter of how well it works for what I need it to work..

So far no ones given an oppion that is usefull for me but thanks anyway for the replies..

Dom

[Dom]

Mousekilla .. Thanks for the oppinion although corns and pythons eggs is a bit different .. I don't think u got the idea right though .. the wooden box would not slow down the loss of evaporation .. the wooden box is BONE dry .. its simply the heating unit.. Humidity is inside teh containers.. thats it..

Best of luck on your clutch

[Tim_Cranwill]

Dom, I've kind of use all three methods (one will be used for the first time this year). I think of your three designs, I would go with #3 as well.



Last year I incubated corn eggs with a Styrofoam cooler, water heater and an egg box with vermiculite. My temps were pretty steady but I only got about a 75% hatch rate. Not sure why...

I also used (for more corn eggs) a fridge with heat tape all up the back and, for the most part, kept the humidity in the egg boxes. I did have some conaitners with open tops filled with water on the door of the fridge. Again, my hatch rate wasn't the greatest... probably about the same as my first clutch/method.

This year, I built (for python eggs) a big wooden box, lined it with Styrofoam and poly (plastic wrap) and have about 80L of water in a LARGE bin being warmed by a 200W heater. My trial boxes have maintained 89F and high humidity. They have wet paper towel in the bottom and the eggs will sit on egg crate with glass on top for viewing.

With my fridge this year, I am trying less ventilation holes, no substrate and no humidity in the fridge whatsoever. We'll see how that goes. So far I've found the humidity is getting sucked out of the boxes. I'll try new boxes with less ventilation though.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass on my experiences with the different types I've built. :) Good luck!

[Dom]

Thanks for the info Tim .. That was trully helpfull

[Lisa]

I'm thinking of using a fridge to stablise air temps with the eggs in containers using the no substrate method with the containers on heat tape or the like for heating. We should be doing corn and possibly king eggs. If we get python eggs I guess I'll have to do the same with the freezer portion of the fridge.

We plan on having temp sensors in each egg container, not sure how we'll do the water sensors, probably just install a web camera (we have a few kicking around not being used) and light so I can see whats going on inside.

Anyone think of anything else?