Thanks for the kind words Aubrey. I still like tinkering with things, it’s kinda like model building that I don’t do any more and I get a kick out of focusing on details. I’m weird like that and would drive most folks crazy. I’m surprised Mary has learned to tolerate me as well as she has, but that’s how special she is!
The more moisture I can get in the incubator, the happier I am and with all that humidity I tend to mix my vermiculite a little on the dry side. In the beginning I had lots of problems with too much moisture in both perlite and vermiculite… and it was because I initially mixed it and kept it too wet. I think the trick with vermiculite or any incubation substrate is to be careful not to mix it too wet in the beginning and of course be careful how much moisture is added or lost during the process of incubation. Vermiculite holds moisture exceptionally well at it’s interior unless it‘s too wet, sort of like a sponge. With anything absorbent, the closer it gets to the point of saturation the quicker it dumps moisture at it’s surface. I prefer the eggs to be surrounded by saturated air as opposed to sitting in substrate that’s too wet for obvious reasons. If you think about what happens in nature, successful eggs are deposited in or on only slightly damp soil that is protected from the elements, under ground debris, deep within a rock pile, in decaying logs, etc. where it is humid and only slightly damp but not wet. Mixing the vermiculite I add water until just before it begins to clump together. If I can make a little vermiculite ball, I add more dry material just until I can no longer do that. My egg boxes are also well ventilated and if I get the moisture level in the incubator high enough, I also leave the lids ajar. Mixing the vermiculite this way and pumping up the humidity in the incubator to over 90%, while at the same time providing good ventilation, has all but eliminated condensate on the lids and the concern of the substrate becoming too wet
The thing with this incubator is, I’m hoping to reach near 100% humidity so I can leave the lids completely off until they begin to hatch so I don‘t have any of these problems we‘ve had with substrate that gets too wet, and so that the eggs get plenty of oxygen during the entire cycle. If all goes perfectly well, I would like to be able to leave the lids of the egg boxes completely off, and possibly only have a thin, loose blanket of very slightly damp sphagnum moss around the eggs with not too much vermiculite on the bottom and just be able to set the thing up and leave it alone. Kinda like a Showtime Rotisserie Oven….. Set it and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!! Well, not completely. I built a lot of ventilation flexibility into this thing, if necessary I can pop the center out of the adjustable vent which will leave behind a screened 2” vent port, or I can close it off completely and let the air pump pressure push air through the seams so I should be able to make some combination work. If it proves necessary to have lids over the boxes, these boxes have slightly domed lids so any moisture that might condense there will run off to the edges.
I’m always curious and looking for new ideas… what new system are you using this year?
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Mike
