Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone ever used it? What was your success rate? Any problems you encountered?
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

A coleman ice chest with a few inches of water and temperature controlled by an aquarium heater. The eggs were in half-buckets of vermiculite that were kept above the water on pieces of PVC pipe. When they pipped, I put paper towels under them so they wouldn't get vermiculite all over them. I had a back-up thermostat so it wouldn't get over 91 degrees, but as far as I know it never triggered. I made this with stuff that I already had around the house. I used it for a few clutches a year for a couple of years with 100% hatch rate.
Paul

I was told about something like this but I was a little skeptical. I was going to buy a hovabator. Is there anyway you can e-mail a description of how you accomplish this more or less. I started to do this but my eggs went bad and I wasn't sure if it was something I did or the eggs were just slugs. If there was a way we could communicate that would be faster. Thanks.

Well, every homemade setup is going to be different. All hovabators should be the same and lots of people can share tips on using them successfully, actually I would recommend that over what I did. Some key reasons my homemade setup worked would be:
1) The heater is submersible with electronic thermostat that has the thermocouple on the sheath. Most aquarium heaters use a bimetallic strip inside the unit that is not very responsive to the water temperature and may allow the temps to fluctuate too much.
2) Thermal mass. I put jars of water in the corners of the ice chest and used lots of vermiculite in the buckets. More mass inside the incubator will smooth out temperature fluctuations.
3) Set up the unit several weeks before you expect the eggs and get everything dialed in.
4) Don’t start out with the vermiculite too wet. Weigh the vermiculite dry and add equal amount of water by weight.
5) Keep the egg containers covered. You’ll end up with condensation all over the inside of the incubator and you don’t want it dripping on your eggs or into the egg containers making things too wet.
6) Back up thermostat inside the cooler. Overheated eggs = dead. As I said I don’t believe mine ever triggered, but I wouldn’t do it without one. I use a proportional herpstat in the new incubator I have now and it’s plugged into a back up thermostat, too. You can’t be too careful when it comes too overheating the eggs.
If I didn’t already have this stuff around the house due to long-time fish and reptile hobby, it would have cost me more to build than just buying a hovabator.
If you have any more questions you can email me at piedpeddler@aol.com
Paul

Thank you!

This is not a fish tank type, but would give you an idea. If you have space for a fridge, this would work great, and very cheap. Hope this helps...
http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/incubator.shtml

Built this incubator for under $100.00
Yardsale mini fridge....5.00
Johnson controlls Thermostat $60.00
Radio shack thermometer 2 zones with humidity 20.00
1ft 11in flexwatt..I think it was like 6.00
Watching those pos het lavs ............Priceless

Johnson controls? They're like a Ranco right?

See, I was going to build one with heat tape and a Helix.
I heard Proportional thermostats work better than on/off.
-----
"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Yes your right there not proportional , and a proportional would definitely be better if you can afford one. The johnson controls is a digital on/off unit with some nice features for the price. You can buy them shipped for $70.00, Heres a few nice features for the money.15ft Replacable temp probe,Heating or cooling modes, Fail safe mode to shut down or run full on if a sensor fails, rated at 1500w, digital readout , manual nightdrop option, Has a temp differential setting, I would use a proportional for sure if price is not an issue. One nice thing about the cooling mode available on the johnson controls is that you can use it in the summer to cool your room when used with a ac unit or cooler or attic fan to cool your room. You set the cut in temp Say 85 degrees and set the differential say 5 degrees. The load will activate at 85 degrees and shut off at 80 degrees. I use one in the garage for the rats and it works great. If the summer temps get in the 100-115 degree range in your area cooling becomes an issue.

Got to Damon Salecies's site under the breeders and dealers section. He is using this methond to hatch some the rarest snakes in the world, albino green tree pythons.