Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i've seen a few posts recently that say not to use hovibator to incubate BP eggs.... any particular reason?

and could someone point me to some DIY incubators then....

Thanks...

Beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I don't know why that would be said - I've used one the past two years and it worked just fine.

Good things about the hovabator -
easy to work
cheap
manageable size (do you really need a refridgerator for one clutch?)

Bad things -
very difficult to fit in a large clutch. - when I tried, my eggs were stuck together in the pyramid, and the top eggs eventually dried up and died because I just couldn't keep it humid enough.
Very susceptible to outside temp changes - if the room's temperature goes up 5 degrees because it's a hot day outside, the hovabator's temperature will go up too. It will also go down at night.

Other than those two things I have not had problems with a hovabator and ball python eggs. If I were you, I'd try and catch your clutch(es) early, so that they aren't stuck together, and the first problem (large clutch size) shouldn't be an issue anymore.

So it's up to you if you want to find a DIY incubator or go your first year with a hovabator. Depending on how many clutches you're expecting, you might have to go with DIY anyway, because the hovabator can't fit much more than one or two clutches in it.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I think it was John Hollister's web page that had a good set of plans to put together a 4'x2'x2' DIY incubator that costs less than $100 bucks. No matter who you are, you can fit alot of eggs in 4x2x2....

daveb

>>i've seen a few posts recently that say not to use hovibator to incubate BP eggs.... any particular reason?
>>

Eggs need some water... but not too much. or too little.
Eggs need some air... but not too much. or too little.
Eggs need some heat... but not too much. or too little.

none of these things are inherent to one particular type of incubator or incubator method. as someone has pointed out elsewhere, eggs can hatch or go bad in a $6000 incubator as easily as in a $50 incubator. These things were the first design to survive on land, out of the water. their mommas' left them alone in nature, they are not as fragile as some might think. what we do to them might make them look fragile, lol.

I suppose a breeder expecting a clutch to hatch that is potentially very valuable might want something else, with more bells whistles, information, whatever, but you can set all the controls in a hovabator- temp up, temp down, air in or out, etc., and your eggs will do just fine.

I have unfortunately missed the bp wave, but I have hatched many eggs in hovabators and in this box pictued below- a 4'x2' glorified hovabator without any problems.

if you go to Krieger Publishing, there is a decent book by Gunther Kohler -Incubation of Reptile Eggs- that is not too expensive , you can use as a resource.

good luck,
daveb

What kind of t-stat did you use & what was the humidity at?

Tx for the scoop. I love to see DIY projects!
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www.heatsherps.com

>>What kind of t-stat did you use & what was the humidity at?
>>
>>Tx for the scoop. I love to see DIY projects!
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>>www.heatsherps.com

I used a big apple t stat along with a radio shack thermometer. I would have to look at the ol' records to say what the humidity was.

daveb

They use (or used to use, correct me if I'm wrong) a mechanical thermostat that can stick, and needs to be replaced every season.
I wouldn't use anything but a quality proportional thermostat in an incubator.

Hi Beth,......Well it comes down to the fact that every egg failure I have had was in a hovabator. That says it pretty clearly and the hovabator was in a ultra stable environment less than 1 degree change from night to day..........Not to mention, Kevin McCurley's book says NO and so does the Barker's book. So I would listen to them..........Think about this you are putting $1000+ worth of production in a $35 styro with a huge radiant hot spot in it! Do you prefer over hard or over easy? Ball pythons expend 1/2 they body weight in producing the little gems don't we owe it to them to do the best we can?...........For a really good and reasonably priced DIY incubator look this link up. http://www.kingsnake.com/salceies/Incubator.htm It works for chondros and IT is proven itself very effective for BPs too. it would work for just about any species so long as adjustments were made accordingly. The thermostat is the big cost and worth every dime, one female baby pastel and it has completely paid for itself. Helix and HerpstatI are both digital proportional thermostats and run $110-$130 Big apple makes one that does not have a digital display but is also proportional. ON/OFF types will work but they have a much higher rate of failure as well as a higher degree of variance between the cycles. OH and spend a few dollars on a indoor outdoor thermometer so you can see what the temps are on the eggs EXACTLY!! MAKE SURE the thermostat probe is in the egg incubating chamber, one of my good friends left his sitting on the floor after checking his beautiful BP clutches and COOKED THEM!! Bummer!!!.....Hovabators are for the birds, although often useful in herps they will never intended for a soft shelled egg!........LASTLY, thousands of BPs are born in the wild every year as mother nature intended, the females take care of the eggs 24/7 loosening their coils when warm tightening when cool, basking to bring heat back to the clutch, gathering up moisture for them and that is AFTER she found just the perfect place to lay the clutch, on top of that it is 24inches under ground and the heat of the soil and moisture are a PERFECT incubator. So it is not as simple as it first sounds....GOOD MAMAs............................................ God Bless, Lee van Hyfte
DIY incubator Damon Salceies

After I got rid of the awful wafer and hooked up a thermostat (I've used Helix and Johnson) - I found the Hoob worked just fine for one or two clutches. Of course I'm always at home watching my eggs being laid so I haven't had the stuck together beehive problem to deal with. I would think if you could find those "fish boxes" that are supposed to fit the Hoobs top then that might solve that problem - I haven't been able to find the boxes.

Good luck!
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Tosha
JET Pythons

can you give me details on how you modified the hov? i wanted to use the heating elements to modify a cooler or even a rubber maid but the wafer freaked me out... if not ill incubate at room temp... im 88-90 degrees room temp but im scared next time we get a storm the temps might go up (they would be in the basement)
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myspace.com/414reptiles

The wafer just unscrews - then you can run the heating element from your thermostat.
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Tosha
JET Pythons

thanks ill give it a try
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myspace.com/414reptiles

We threw this one together just for fun, it took a few hours to do and cost was just over $200, most of that was the Helix Thermostat....I have seen many people build them out of Coolers...this one sucessfully hatched out a clutch of Jungle Carpet Pythons last year...

1/2 inch PVC frame, with heat rope wrapped in a zigzag pattern across the bottom...

Got the grating in the lighting section at Home Depot, and cut it to size to make the first layer where the pans of water sit...

Got the fan at Radio Shack, for $20 and mounted it on the second layer of PVC Framing, facing the pans of water.

Shows the second layer that will hold the egg container...

I have heard of people converting Fridges, coolers...We have hatched out many geckos in Havobators, they work, but thier small, and made of Styrofoam...

Professional Incubators are cool, and pretty nice...but we only do this for fun, so we didn't see spending the money on a fancy nice one was worth it....especially if you only do a few clutches a year...but if you really start producing dozens of clutches a year...then you might want to go bigger....

Best of luck, and have fun.
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Executive Reptiles
Amanda Kingsbury & David Kendrick
www.executivereptiles.com

I made this incubator last year using an old glass front freezer. I made it to display eggs incubating in the store for display purposes. It got a lot of attention and I think amazed a lot of people that are not into reptiles as to how big ball python eggs are and when they started hatching you would not believe the crowds in front of it. I still have & use an incubator that was made back in the mid 1970's using the old style of pipe heating cables as the heat source. In fact that incubator was used to hatch out some of the first captive bred green tree pythons back in 1976.
Bruce Delles c/o Twin Cities Reptiles
IN THE RETAIL REPTILE BUSINESS SINCE 1978

A hovibator will work fine for ball eggs as long as you don't have more than a clutch or two to incubate. I have used hovibators for the last 18 years for multiple species with excellent results. The biggest problem is the small size of the incubator. To correct that problem, I simply replaced the stro bottom with a larger, deeper styro fish shipping box and attach it to the top with duct tape. I still have a hovibator as a back-up, actually the same one with the same cheap wafer thermostat.

However, over the last several years, I have watched my number of clutches grow exponentially. Last year, after using a hodgepodge of home made incubaors (and the hovi), I constructed the ultimate home made incubator (for about $100.00) that will incubate multiple species (different temps) and multiple clutches. Here's what you do:

1. find a small closet in your house and clean it out
2. set up some wire storage shelves (HD)- $20.00
3. buy an oil filled radiant space heater (Target) - $35.00 (not a blower)
4. by a cheap (but damn reliable) Ranco thermostat on-line at one of the suppliers here at ks - $60.00
plug it all in and bingo, you have a very reliable, large incubator that will hatch multiple species if you allow the heat to radiate up without circulation, or lots of one species if you allow a small fan to circulate the air. This design was borrowed from Frank Retes who borrowed a similar design from VPI. Also, simple on/off style thermostats are all that is necessary, buy a good one of those and don't waste your money on proportional thermostats for an incubator. Most cannot handle the wattage necessary to run the oil heater and they simply do not have the time tested reliablility of a Ranco. good luck.

Will

Hey Will,

good idea. I should definitely take that ( closet incubator)
into consideration.

daveb

you can fit 6-10 clutches of balls in a Hovabator. My record was 56 Burmese eggs at once with a large shipping styro added. The bottom of the Hovabator is pretty much useless if you want heat mass and space. Sorry, I don't have any pics of this setup anymore. They are long lost and I've upgraded incubators.....although I think the Hovabator is one of the best I've used.

Good luck.
Brandon Osborne
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

Brandon,

what are you using to incubate your eggs now? Did you buy a commercial incubator or did you put together a DIY incubaotr?

I never had a problem with a Hovabator. My 10 year old model still works well with the original wafer. One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the top of the instruction sheet included with the incubator-

"WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE DIRECTIONS"

daveb

"WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, READ THE DIRECTIONS"

Isn't it always though.

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles