Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got 2 Hovabators for Christmas and have finally had a chance to play with them. I have a some questions for those of you that use them. I don't expect to use them before next year but want to get a good idea how these things work beforehand.

1. Clearance - there doesn't seem to be much room between the heating elements and where I expect the eggs to be. Do I need the coller kit or can I extend the height with cut pieces of styrofoam duct taped together? Or is the height okay as is?

2 Heat adjustment - It it very hard to "tweak" the temp? When I first set them up the temp promptly shot up to over 100 deg. and I've been messing with the adjusting screw to adjust the temp. How soon before eggs are layed should I set them up to get the temp right? I plan to do this with the boxes of vermiculite in place, will the addition of the eggs alter the temp? I'm assuming a thermostat would be a good idea to use with them to make sure the temps don't spike when I'm not around. What brand would you recommend?

3 Air exchange - I see there are 2 small holes in the top. Between those and when the lid needs to be opened will this be sufficient air exchange?

4 Humidity - It seems to me there may be a problem with condensation. Does anyone find this to be true? How do you deal with it?

Any tips or things to beware of?

Thanks for any info
Cheryl

clearance: i used a little giant incubator same size and concept but better thermostat you want to place the eggs as close to the middle as possible they have plenty of clearance especially for the limited # of bp eggs you will have avg. 6-10

heat adjustment: the slightest turn of the dial can be a a 2-4 degree difference dont shoot for the highest level
try to place it in the middle and mark it with a marker and adjust from there i used a digital thermometer i got from walmart for $10 it was gr8 and more importantly accurate remember you want to keep the incubator in a relatively cooler room like 75-80 deg
so u can always fine tune it daily which i always had to do and i had a 100% hatch rate in my personal opinion i would not use the vermiculite box i would use the newspaper that i will speak about in humidity

air exchange:there should be holes on the bottom to allow air besides the to larger holes on top that can be plugged and unplugged

humidity:my little giant incubator held humidity horribly i actually placed my bp eggs on a 1/4-1/2 inch wad of newspaper and
sprayed the newspaper down every 2-3 days and always between the sheets of np to keep the humidity up now if your incubator is showing and overabundance of condensation it might be holding humidity to well and in turn could mold the eggs unplug one of the top plugs to allow some out moisture out you will know if the humidity is getting low your eggs will start sinking in if u notice this replug the hole

I also do not recommend the fan because of godforbid the the humidity drops you will be circulating dry air and will in turn dry the eggs out and kill them

Like i said in the beginning i used a different incubator but the concept should almost be the same some of my info may be very helpful and some may not but this forum is awesome and the people here are very knowledgeable if i am wrong on something they will correct it hahahahahaha

Around 90 degrees F around 100% humidity....simple as that.

Look at the equipment at hand, and see how you can accomplish that. It can be done soooo many ways.

Now specifically with the equipment you have....

1) you could use the expansion rings or make your own out of styrofoam. Some people fit the hovabator top right onto a large styrofoam shipping box. Anything will work

2) using a hovabator, and anytime really, you need to put the eggs in a seperate egg box (a tupperware of rubbermaide type thinggy, or even a large deli cup type of container).

3) definately bypass the hovabator thermostat. I would reccomend using a proportional type from helix or big apple.
Thermostat probe goes in the egg box with the eggs.

4) the egg box needs very little or no incubation. Mine have almost none. I open the egg box about once every week to 10 days and up until the last couple of weeks thats plenty of air exchange.

5) people will tell you to use moist vermiculite, but That scares the crap out of me. I lost a few eggs early on in my breeding days using vermiculite. If it gets to dry, you have to add water...when it gets too wet, eggs die. Since going to a no-sub method, I've hatched 100%

6) hovabators from what I have heard have been problematic, but remember....incubation is simple...about 90 degress, about 100% humidity, and presto....8 weeks later you've got cute little babies....

Good luck!
Joe Pociask Pythons

#4...egg box needs little or no VENTILATION.

Sorry!

Thanks to all that replied and for all the information.

I've use perlite, vermiculite, and spaghnum moss in incubating corn eggs and never really been happy with any of them. Where can I get info on the no sub method? I'll be getting Dr Sewards ball breeding video, probably next month, when I've recuperated from Christmas. Is there information there on no substrate? I might give it a try on some of my corn eggs this year.

So here's what I do. I was a bit weary about putting the eggs on a grate over just plain ole water, as the original "no substrate" method calls for. I worried that the water might get a little funky. What I do is put the eggs over very wet perlite....sopping wet, not moist. The eggs sit above the wet perlite on a plastic grate...they DO NOT touch the perlite. They do not come into contact with the surface at all, they stay completely dry. They recieve all the moisture they need from the air, which will remain at nearly 100% humidity at all times. The trick is to make sure that you do not have too much ventilation. My egg boxes have a tiny hole just big enough to fit the temperature probes through, and a another even smaller hole on the other side.The lid snaps tight but not air tight. During the first several weeks I open the egg boxes about once every week to ten days. The last couple of weeks I open them every few days, and check daily when hatching is eminent. I use a home made cooler type incubator, but it will work in any type incubator. In my opinion, this method is far superior to having the eggs sit directly in the substrate. You never have to add more water, and the eggs can not get too wet or too dry. They stay perfectly fat and white.

Joe Pociask Pythons

I think I can adapt that for the corns by using window screening so they can't get down into the perlite. There have been reports about hatchling corn deaths associated with crawling thru perlite. Not a problem with balls getting down there I guess! I'll definately give it a try this year.

Cheryl, another thing you can try instead of window screening is the plastic grate from an old 20" floor fan. You simply cut it to the size you need and if you "screw up" you'll have plenty more to work with. The nice thing about this is that it is cheap and nearly everyone has an old fan that either doesn't work or needs to be replaced anyway. I may be able to get you some (if you can't find any for some reason) just email me the size you would want them cut down to and I could send some to you. I'm pretty sure we have a bunch of old fan grates in the shop at work, most of them are collecting dust because we only use them for parts.
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Sometimes, things are exactly as they appear...sometimes.

I'm sure I can find something around here to use! Hubby never throws anything away and sometimes that comes in handy. Thanks for the offer.

Cheryl

Joe just gave a fine example!! This way work out great.

Joe thanks for the picture. Good Job!

Steve

http://finegtps.com/breeding.html#Incubators

I use them and have a small writeup here: http://home.cfl.rr.com/jmartin104/reptiles/
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Jay A. Martin

Nice basic, easy to use website! I get lost for hours on some of those big ones!LOL I booked marked it for future refernce.

No problem. I use to spend hours retyping replies on similar topics but I don't get out here as much as I used to so I thought a quick little page would be better than nothing. I hope to add to the topics in the future when I get more time.

Hope it helps.
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Jay A. Martin