Wet or Dry incubation ?!

[atheris]

So what kind of incubators are you fellows using ?

Also if you got any pics of your system it would be nice.

I think the best is made from old refridgerator or freezer.

[vanderkm]

Not sure what species you are dealing with and we are pretty small time - but this is our set up from this year - working well so far - cornsnanke eggs pipping on schedule -

One of two coolers showing cord from aquarium heater (the lid closes on this brand of cooler without compressing the cord, so no need to modify the cooler).



View inside - some plastic containers filled with gravel to support a plastic rack (dropped ceiling grate cut to size - same as we use in the egg containers) above the water level (1/3 of cooler with water - enough volume for good heat sink effect - gravel also holds heat when cooler opened).
Ebo Jager submersible aquarium heater (they say not to immerse but you can) - set up 3-4 days in advance - the thermostat in these is pretty reliable and we don't use an additional one.



Egg tubs set on grate - each contains moistened vermiculite under a piece of grate, a few holes around the sides - these are the same containers we use for hatchlings. Eggs go in the tubs, thermometer probe on the eggs, close tubs, close lid - don't peek for 60 days (well we actually look in pretty often!)


This season temps have stayed stable at between 82-84 degrees (they are in basement where room temp is about 75, humidity is always virtually saturated. Working well for us so far. Only issue has been the indoor/outdoor thermometer batteries failing (recorded higher temp in tubs than it really was) - used temp gun for weekly checks on temp.

Cost was about $40 for cooler, $60 for heater (Canadian $$), few $$ for ceiling grate and tubs.


mary v.

[gonesnakee]

And once all the incubating is done, the incubator doubles as a Beer cooler later in the summer eh Mary! LOL Mark

[vanderkm]

And with two of them - lots of room for beer! Canadian - eh! (actually nothing but the pride of Nova Scotia in here - love Alexander Keith in the summer)

We recycle everything - the heaters go back in our fishtanks during the winter months!

mary v.

[JDouglas]

Mary that looks exactly like an incubator I made last year but I found that after a week the water and cooler started to smell like mildew and I was having trouble maintaining level temps. I think my heater was way to big at 150 watts. I decided to use water bottles and heat tape for heat.
Here is a link that shows my incubator and tells the story but yo u wil have to excuse the incorrect pics towards the end...
Incubator

[JDouglas]

We are incubating colubrid eggs now in our boa room. The eggs are in the same egg chamber from my python incubator but it is just sitting on top of a stack of cages. Now I have my room temp stable at about 82F. It will take a bit longer at this temp. We made a couple changes to the egg chamber. We are using glass for a lid and to better seal the chamber we are using foam door sealer that is sticky on on side. So we we just stuck it along the rim of the chamber and put the glass on. Now it is sealed completely!





Everyone loves to look at the eggs right out in the open! Since this pic was taken we have added another clucth of 6 to the chamber and the eggs look great.

I would like to add that when using the "no sbstrate" method you must make sure the eggs don't come in contact with the water below.