why do my eggs die?

[asm1006]

This lot of bd eggs were deffo fertile and developing nicely (they were due to hatch around 6 Nov) but now the remaining one is going squidgy.
Have done a homemade incubator with heat mat and temps were ok, and humidity around 80% but now has gone to 90% so have removed the lid as fear too damp.
What am I doing wrong?

[reticmadness79]

What you using to place eggs on in tub

[asm1006]

vermiculite, in cricket tubs

[kerryrep22]

to be honest i know that a lot of peoples home-made ones work great, but for me its too much of a risk, too tempramental, so i bit the bullet and bought a proper one. its a lot of money, but better piece of mind i think.

[kerryrep22]

Originally Posted by kerryrep22

to be honest i know that a lot of peoples home-made ones work great, but for me its too much of a risk, too tempramental, so i bit the bullet and bought a proper one. its a lot of money, but better piece of mind i think.

im not saying that they are totally faultless, but mine is uber reliable, and so far has given me a 100% success rate.

[asm1006]

Think its time I invest in one then, as its horrid losing the eggs. x

[jennlovesfrogs]

my home made one has hatched 100% of the fertile leo eggs this season, maybe the vermiculite is too damp? have you made any extra holes in the cricket tubs? not too sure on BD eggs and what humidity they need, so it's just my thoughts.

Did any of the eggs go a bit mouldy or fluffy?

The only problem with the homemade ones is the humidity, you have to check them daily.

[asm1006]

I found it difficult to make sure the vermiculate firstly, didn't dry out or became too damp as I found there was condensation on the lids. Hence put additional holes in, but this caused condensation in the polybox-not good with a heat mat.
I had a couple of mouldy eggs, but the rest well, they just seem to shrivel and die. I opened some up and there was definately the beginnings of embryos but the inside of egg was akin to cheese almost, rubbery.

[legion]

hi we have a home made incubator which we have used for beardie eggs, even though the temps fluctuate between 27 and 31 we always have a hundred percent hatch rate, we also keep ours on damp vermiculite in cricket boxes which we have a temp probe to an external thermomitor. the only thing not mentioned in the post which is something we do is daily remove the lids of the bug boxes and whipe them of any condensation to prevent it dripping back on to the eggs which can cause them to go mouldy. when we check the bug boxes and there is no condensation we know the vermiculite is to dry and needs to be dampend with some water. which we also keep a few small bottles of in the incubator as this helps to settle the temp and the water is at a suitable temp to add to the vermiculite. also be removing the lids daily this also allows clean air to get into the tub which is also very good for the eggs.
hope this helps good luck.
legion

[asm1006]

Thanks for that sadly the last egg perished. Lessons learnt for next time.x