My first incubator

JDouglas · 07-24-04, 01:38 AM

There have been a lot of posts about incubators lately and it got me thinking about my first time incubating...

I was about 18 years old and lived with my parents so this was about ten years ago and I had a bunch of cornsake eggs. I had researched how to incubate them and I knew I wanted them at 85F but didn't own any fancy thermostats.
I looked for a room in my house that was 85F but they were either too hot or too cool. My parents were to cheap to cool the upstairs where my bedroom was and it would get way too hot for eggs up there.
The answer finally came to me one day as I went up the stairs to my room. I noticed the air got hotter and hotter as I went up and a little light came on in my head. I began taking temp readings on each of the steps and found the magic step that was at 85F. I placed a themometer two steps up and two steps down also.
The eggs were put in a tupperware container with vermiculite and placed off to the side on the magic step. Everyday I would check the thermometer on the step as I passed by. If it was too warm I would move down a step or two and if it was too cool I would go up a step or two. The other two thermometers were my guides.
Well one day I walked down the stairs to find the eggs hatching and ended up with a 100% hatch rate. Now everytime I walk those steps I think of those eggs and how cool it was!

Thanks for reading,

Jaremy

Stockwell · 07-24-04, 01:59 AM

Nice story!! It's funny how we never forget.
My first eggs were corns that I hatched in 1979.
Following a winter car ride, the pair mated and i received a clutch of eggs that I incubated on a damp sponge on a piece of screen over water in one of my moms bread pans.. They all hatched and all escaped into my parents house. Only ever found one. To this very day, I caution new breeders on the escape skills of baby corns. I also never admitted to my parents how many baby snakes were roaming their house. LOL

Katt · 07-24-04, 10:26 AM

Wow, that magic step thing, is totally great!

Roy, got to hand it to your parents. Letting you use her bread pan? Wow!

Jeff_Favelle · 07-25-04, 05:41 PM

LOL Roy!

Dom · 07-25-04, 08:39 PM

Too funny .. great stories!

Stockwell · 07-25-04, 09:10 PM

Katt, you don't actually think I told her. She only made banana bread at xmas so I was able to get it back into safe keeping before she noticed it gone. I bet its still at home! Maybe I should bronze it and sell it on e-bay... After all it was responsible for the now common "corn-bread" LOL