The last couple of seasons I had eggs that would go almost full term but wouldn't hatch, I would have large eggs with small hatchlings and what would seem to be more kinked hatchlings then would be proportional

I was incubating my eggs in containers with no air holes and upon reflection felt as if I was probably keeping the eggs/substrate too moist.

It just seemed to me as if the eggs were absorbing too much moisture and this wasn't allowing enough room for the embryos to grow properly. May be stupid may be possible. Not sure...BUT

I decided to do things a little different this season and see what happens.

I have always used sphagnum moss and didn't change that. I figured if my plan didn't make a difference this season I would change substrates next season. It is just easier for me to simply look at the sphagnum moss and gauge moisture.

So, the first change was using containers with air holes. I wanted air holes to help keep the eggs/substrate dryer.

This season I wanted to keep things to the dry side. The only time I even thought about adding any water to the substrate was if it dried all the way to eggs. It always dries from the edges in. I think the eggs draw the water to them much the same as plants do. This may be way off as well but it seems logical to me. And the substrate DOES dry from the edges of the container towards the eggs so something keeps the moisture around the eggs longer then the rest of the container...Anyway, I only added water if the substrate around the eggs dried or I saw any signs of the eggs starting to dimple.

The last couple of seasons I would occasionally mist the eggs as well. I just seemed to be afraid of them drying out. I didn't do that this season. Short and simple, I basically incubated as dry as I possibly could.

OK, after all the eggs were laid and put on the shelves to incubate a few went bad within the first few days, which is normal. After two weeks all the bad eggs were weeded out. There were 184 eggs laid and after two weeks I had 181 eggs I expected to hatch.

Of these 181 eggs 168 have hatched so far and there are still 11 to go. So in other words I have only had 2 eggs out of the first 170 that didn't hatch. AND there has not been one kink in the whole batch. It could be a fluke or I could be onto something here.

As I stated earlier I just feel that too much moisture absorbed into the eggs wasn't allowing enough room for the embryos to grow properly. This season, as well as the last couple, my temps ranged up and down between 78 to around 87 so I honestly don't feel temps were as much a factor as moisture when it came to kinks and eggs not making it to full term.

I will definitely repeat the same incubation process next season and will have a better idea if it was a fluke or not.

sorry to ramble on...I just felt a few people might find it interesting and/or useful.









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Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.

"Resistance is futile"

Jimmy Johnson

(Draybar)

Draybars Snakes



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