egg tubs?

[emilia]

ok i have a question but if this is the wrong section mods please move it

i have made my own incubator from a poly box ready for any royals that lay next year but i have a question about the tubs you put the eggs in

what kinds/sizes of tubs do you guys use to put the eggs in when theyre in the incubator and could you put them in a rub or does it have to be totally sealed?

[Brittanicus]

It depends on the size and number of eggs and whether they are stuck together or not. This is the method I use for corns.
Basically you can use any plastic tub as long as you can fit the eggs in, along with whatever material you are using to lay the eggs on.
I usually use sandwich boxes with the eggs laid on damp vermiculite, then place java moss over the top of them. I place the lid on to keep the humidity in, after already having drilled a few holes round the sides and the lid of the sandwich box.

[emilia]

so if you have a big enough incubator box you could put the eggs in a rub then? would you need to drill holes for ventilation or will the small gaps in the rub be ok?

[essexchondro]

I use home hamde poly box incubators and for my egg boxes I use 9L RUB's.

The only hole that I drill in the RUB is the one through which the thermostat probe goes (the stat probe is wedged between the eggs to regulate egg surface temps, not ambient incubator air temps). I put the lid on the RUB but I don't clip it down so there will be a small amount of air exchange between incubator and egg box.

[emilia]

ok thanks for that, i have to ask though

do you always put the probe in the tub with the eggs rather than leaving it hanging inside the incubator?

ive hatched out corns,milks,chams and beardies with just leaving it halfway down the inside of the polybox rather than inside the tubs and i get good success that way but is it better to leave it in with the eggs?

[emilia]

anyone?

[snakeprint]

If the probe is inside the tub with the eggs in, you're going to get a more accurate temperature. If you leave the probe outside the tubs, your eggs will be probably be incubated at a slightly higher temperature than you set the thermostat to because a smaller tub will hold the heat more than your incubator. If you take the lid off the incubator, it will start losing heat, so the thermostat will turn on. But, your small tub with eggs in will keep most of the heat in if you've left the lid on, so it will end up being heated up more than it needed to be. On the other hand, if you take your small tub out of the incubator for a time, it will start cooling down at a faster rate than your incubator will because it is a smaller volume. Think of a large pan of water and a small pan of water, both over the same amount of heat. The small pan will boil faster because there is a smaller volume to heat. If you turn them off, the water in the small pan will cool faster.

[essexchondro]

ok thanks for that, i have to ask though

do you always put the probe in the tub with the eggs rather than leaving it hanging inside the incubator?

ive hatched out corns,milks,chams and beardies with just leaving it halfway down the inside of the polybox rather than inside the tubs and i get good success that way but is it better to leave it in with the eggs?

It's the eggs that you're trying to hatch, and they need to be at a certain temperature in order to do that...so why over-complicate things by measuring and regulating the temps of something other than the eggs themselves???

[emilia]

what would be the best kind of moss to put over the eggs when they hatch?

[rachel132002]

I put the probe outside the box and callibrate to the inside of the box, this is because it takes longer for a tub of vermiculite to heat up than the actual bator so the eggs may go through a period of overheating once the incubator itself is full whack.

I've always had success with my method as others have had with theirs, it's each to their own and trial and error.

I use airtight lunchboxes for egg boxes.