Any Experience with Eggs Incubation?

[seanang168]

I have five eggs laid in mid Aug this year and they are placed in a small incubator with temperature set at abt 31 degrees C. They are about three quarter covered in moist vermiculite. Inside got a small container where I top it with water to maintain humidity.

About once a week I will open incubator to circulate air. Today I detect a whiff of rotten egg smell and noted two of the eggs seemed to be a bit black internally. The other three eggs are quite white still. I dare not hold up the eggs for fear of disrupting it and also of explosion in my hands which happened before.

To those who have successfully reared eggs, any advice for me? Do you think I am doing correctly and whether how to tell if my eggs are fertile and developing?

I think maybe I should now open incubator more frequently like once in 3 days to allow air pollutants to let go and let eggs explode on it's own.

 

[Baoh]

I would remove the foul eggs.

 

[findingotis]

Have you tried candling them? At this age there should be a little tortoise formed inside if they were fertile. Definitely get rid of the rotten ones, or wait for them to crack before you get rid of them, just to be sure.

Goodluck!

 

[seanang168]

Hi I could not really tell which egg is the rotten ones. Once it explode I will remove it. I am not familiar with candling method though I read somewhere that better to leave it than candling it.

 

[Katherine]

What kind of eggs are they? If you are having repeatedly poor success incubating eggs I would double check the temp and humidity for the species you are incubating as well as probbing your incubator with a separate thermometer/ hygrometer to ensure your readings are accurate. Also i would recommend considering keeping future clutches in separate containers. I have found that if one egg goes bad; the ones around it generally do too so it's best to remove it as soon as possible. If you are unable or unwilling to remove a bad egg (understandable- I personally always incubate eggs long after I suspect they are infertile bc I hate to "give up" on the maybebaby) then storing the eggs in separate containers will help prevent offgasing of a bad egg from affecting the fertile eggs. If you can provide the type of egg you're incubating perhaps we can give more specific advice : ) goodluck!

 

[Laura]

type? indian star or burmese?

 

[seanang168]

Hi kat and Laura I believed my stars are Indian type. I have not had successes with my previous two batches as I do not even have an incubator and I just followed advice from a Malaysian who had success incubating in a covered container and using soil. Two times eggs exploded in my hands as I removed them to clear out insects that appeared when I was using soil.

My latest batch is properly prepared using this incubator. It is not a very big one and with five eggs there are hardly any more space. I think the spoil eggs could be the one that looks dark internally but I am not so sure.

I will use another thermometer to check as advice.

 

[Alim]

Any picture to show the incubator?

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Any picture to show the incubator?

Pictures would be great!

 

[bettinge]

My experience is this.....if they are black, they're dead and rotting. They will explode and make a fowl mess. Mind you I am speaking of Hermanns eggs only.

My gut feel is that they are too damp, but I am still expermenting with this as well.

 

[Tom]

As long as you don't turn the eggs, it is fine to touch them. I would pick up each egg and give it the "smell" test. Chuck the bad ones right away. Candle the others with a flash light. If they were laid in August, they will probably not hatch at this point, but no harm in letting them cook, as long as they are not rotten.

With sulcata and leopard eggs it is important to have the water to vermiculite ratio just right. I've never done star eggs, but I would guess its the same for them. I mix water to vermiculite at a 1 : 1 ratio, by weight, at the start of incubation. So 500 grams of vermiculite and 500 grams of water. If you incubate them in closed shoe boxes inside the incubator, with 4-6 small air holes in the sides, you won't have to add much water during incubation and your humidity will be just right.

 

[Neal]

I have five eggs laid in mid Aug this year and they are placed in a small incubator with temperature set at abt 31 degrees C. They are about three quarter covered in moist vermiculite. Inside got a small container where I top it with water to maintain humidity.

About once a week I will open incubator to circulate air. Today I detect a whiff of rotten egg smell and noted two of the eggs seemed to be a bit black internally. The other three eggs are quite white still. I dare not hold up the eggs for fear of disrupting it and also of explosion in my hands which happened before.

To those who have successfully reared eggs, any advice for me? Do you think I am doing correctly and whether how to tell if my eggs are fertile and developing?

I think maybe I should now open incubator more frequently like once in 3 days to allow air pollutants to let go and let eggs explode on it's own.

If you smell rotten eggs when you open the incubator, I would recommend you sniff each egg individually and toss out the rotten egg(s).

Eggs can handle quite a bit of movement. If you want to determine which ones are fertile, get a small Maglite or some type of small flashlight and shine it on top of the egg. You don't have to lift the eggs up for this, you can keep them right in the containers. A fertile egg will be dark from the top, and as it develops the dark shadow will work its way down the egg. Veins appear very quickly in Indian Star eggs, which is another sign of fertility.

Good luck!

 

[seanang168]

Thanks for the advice! I have thrown away two confirmed rotten eggs. Till now there are still 3 eggs incubating since Aug 2011. I think they are infertile as hatching period should be over by now? It has been like 200 days.

 

[Neal]

Yeah, star eggs hatch pretty quick. Less than 100 days has been our experience.

 

[Yvonne G]

Any picture to show the incubator?

Hi Alim:

Won't you take a few moments to start a new thread in the "introductions" section and tell us a bit about yourself?