Incubating eggs

[Se/2aph]

Is anyone else havin trouble incubating eggs this season with the weather being all over the shop?

I had 33 eggs from my 2 beardys and they are due to hatch any day now but it looks like only 12 are gunna hatch the rest look deflated and yellowish.

 

[Skitzmixer]

I was lucky, i only lost 1 egg during incubation ( out of 18 ). My incubator heats and cools so it handled the odd weather quite well.

 

[cement]

Guidelines for good incubators

1) must be able to deal with changes in weather conditions!

 

[Se/2aph]

Agreed but only my second year incubating eggs so trouble shooting i guess is part of the package also

 

[BurtonReptiles]

Ive had a little trouble with the weather making mine going little higher than normal but finger crossed that they hatch all my eggs still look good

 

[mummabear]

Mine heats and cools too so no issue with change in temperature conditions. It's a great piece of mind and very successful.

 

[BurtonReptiles]

Mine heats and cools too so no issue with change in temperature conditions. It's a great piece of mind and very successful.

How you manage to make it do this ?

 

[mummabear]

I use 2 Habistat thermostats from the Herp shop. 1 thermostat attached to the heat source and a cooling thermostat plugged into the wine fridge. Too hot and the fridge comes on to cool it down. I put all the probes and wires out the door and used child locks to make sure it had a good seal and held tight. I also like it because nothing needs to be done to the fridge. All components can be used at a later date.


I also have a much larger one which cost me $50 second hand.

 

[BurtonReptiles]

That so good mate I got bar fridge and mine goes up and down in temp 0.4 degree nothing worry about but be good have it stable

 

[crocdoc]

Unless you've got extremes in temperature lasting weeks I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's the weather affecting the eggs. The viability of eggs is mostly determined at the time that they are laid. In other words, you can't hatch bad eggs and it's hard to kill good eggs. Even eggs that look good when laid can be nonviable if the female held onto them for too long while searching for a better nest site. For what it's worth, I've had an incubator disconnected from electricity in the middle of winter so that the lace monitor and perentie eggs being incubated dropped from 30C to 15C for a few days. I was away when this happened, but I turned the incubator back on and all of the eggs hatched a couple of months later, when they were due. Last summer I had my incubator go up to 39C for a day (after a week of the incubator being at 35C, I should add) and all of the lace monitor eggs I was incubating hatched. Bearded dragons are shallow nesters, so I'd expect their eggs to be even better adapted to spikes in temperature, provided they aren't long term extremes.

 

[Se/2aph]

Thnx very much all!! As much as its painful this has happened im not gunna let it discourage me to continue to indulge in this most awesum hobby!! Fingers crossed for better luck next year!!

 

[GeckoJosh]

I lost 90% of my eggs last season due to having a dodgy incubator that fluctuated way too much and 2 heat waves.
I have since bought an Exoterra incubator that has a cooling function, this incubator does fluctuate a bit more than I like but so far I have had over 90% success rate with around 40 gecko and dragon eggs

 

[mummabear]

I agree crocdoc; eggs if in good condition when laid are very hardy. More than we give them credit for. I think there is no harm in having a safety net in regards to overheating for longer than normal periods though. It is highly likely that heat is not the problem in this case.
I only incubate gecko eggs and i haven’t lost a fertile egg with my current method but I’m sure my success is not just because of my incubator but all parameters.

 

[crocdoc]

I think there is no harm in having a safety net in regards to overheating for longer than normal periods though.

Oh, without a doubt. I always have the incubator in the coolest, most temperature stable part of the house. This summer's been mild, though (at least in this part of the country) so heat isn't a worry so far.

eggs if in good condition when laid are very hardy. More than we give them credit for.

I should also mention that, in addition to the extremes of heat and cool mentioned above, I once dropped an egg box onto a solid concrete floor. Luckily the eggs were in perlite, which cushioned the blow, so I quickly opened the box, uprighted them and put the box back in the incubator. They all hatched. This year I dropped an egg onto a hard ceramic tile floor as I was pulling it out of the enclosure (the female monitor rushed me and I value my fingers more than an egg). The egg bounced twice, the first time a clear 10-15cm off the floor. Pretty funny. That was a couple of months ago and the egg still seems okay, so we'll see what happens at hatching time in a few months. If it hatches I'll add that list to the things I've experienced that have shown how much tougher eggs are than we give them credit for!