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Looking for a good incubator. :o)

S

Shakota

New member
Hello all. Last year was my 1st year to have a clutch of eggs. We made a small home made incubator with 100% hatch rate, but this year I will have four females hopefully laying. :eek:) Just wanted some ideas for an incubator that doesn't cost me a fortune, but something that people are successfully using now. Any ideas let me know. Thanks in advance Sarah :sidestep:
 
I would see if you can find an old refrigerator that doesn't work or is not being used. Even one of those mini ones would be perfect. It's designed to insulate so would be great. Stick some flexwatt inside to controll temp and you're all set.

Another method is to take an ice chest and fill it with some water several inches deep. Get an aquarium heater or two (depending on heater and size of ice chest) and use that to heat the water which will heat the inside. Put some sort of rack in the bottom that is 6 or so inches off the ground and put your eggs on that.

Do a search for these methods on google and you can find tons of info.
 
Just put the eggs in a container with perlite, and put them in a styrofoam cooler or box. They incubate just fine at 80 degrees or so. I had 6 clutches hatch out that way at basically room temperature. I'm not going to use an incubator for the cornsnake eggs anymore.
 
Hi Shakota,
We use HovaBator incubators. They work great and are very inexpensive at $39.99. We purchase ours from www.LLLReptile.com as they seem to have the best prices. We hatched out 5 successful clutches last year using these and we plan on purchasing more as we will have quite a few more clutches this year. You will need some small bins for the eggs, some spaghnum moss for incubating medium and a thermometer/hygrometer for controlling humidity and temps. They are very basic and simple to use. We purchased our Thermometer/Hygrometer from www.BigAppleHerp.com. They work great and cost $34.99 for the dual probe unit. Hope this is what you were looking for.
Jay & PJ :cool:


14

Thermal Hova Bator Incubator
Hova-Bator is the Worlds Best Small Incubator and is the most economical, reliable incubator available. The radiant heat tube gently warms the inside of the incubator. The built in thermostat keeps the temperature steady. “THERMAL” Incubator Heated air flowing out the exhaust vents in the top of the incubator, draws fresh air in through the bottom vent. Ideal for almost all reptiles!
size: 18" X 18" X 9.5"

1108.jpg

Big Apple's Digital Thermometer & Hygrometer with Min/Max Memory
DUAL Probe System
Separate Probe for Thermometer
Separate Probe for Hygrometer
 
You should be able to fit between 6-8 clutches in them depending on the size of the clutches and egg bins you use.
Jay & PJ :cool:
 
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Very nice Dean. We think we may just purchase one of these as well. We should have between 10-12 clutches this year (with a lot more in the future years) and this will definitely take up less space then a few Havabators. Which one did you plan on getting and why? The one with the Helix controls or the one with the HerpStat controls?

Shakota, sorry for the extra question to Dean, I am not trying to steal your thread honestly. I figured it would be some good advice from him to expand on this thread.
Jay & PJ :cool:
 
The old refrigerator/freezer idea is perfect. I've used it for burms, balls, and blood pythons as well as all my corns and kings. It is cheap, easy to use and gives you plenty of space. Someday it'll get added to my website as my equipment I use...but alas, that day is not here. If anyone wants more info on the specifics...I'll be happy to post.
 
I couldn't begin to fit 5 or 6 in my hovabator. I had a hard time fitting my clutch of 21 in there. There would have barely been room for one more container. You'd have to have gotten all the eggs out before they stuck to one another and hope you could fit them in a small container. We barely fit Stephen's 6 clutches in a large styrofoam container that was easily twice as large as a hovabator.
 
I'm sorry, Meg is right. Now that I think about it we could only fit 4 smaller egg containers/bins in the HovaBator at a time. That's why we had to buy another one....DUH ! :crazy02: PJ had to smack me up-side the head to jog my memory... :punch: OUCH !!
 
I can bet Dean will be going with the Herpstat.

For that price, Dean, might as well get a small upright freezer and put some flexwatt in there. Seems to be the better option anyway.
 
We think it would be a good idea for Jeff Mohr were to put together a "How To" thread on how to make an incubator out of a freezer, (unless someone else has already made a thread) :shrugs:
Jay & PJ :cool:
 
PJCReptiles said:
Very nice Dean. We think we may just purchase one of these as well. We should have between 10-12 clutches this year (with a lot more in the future years) and this will definitely take up less space then a few Havabators. Which one did you plan on getting and why? The one with the Helix controls or the one with the HerpStat controls?
Click to expand...
Yep, Joe's right. I'm a Herpstat convert. I'll bet that a Helix would be fine for an incubator of this size, but I've found Herpstat to be more reliable, so I'd go with that.
Joejr14 said:
I can bet Dean will be going with the Herpstat.

For that price, Dean, might as well get a small upright freezer and put some flexwatt in there. Seems to be the better option anyway.
Click to expand...
That would require effort on my part, Joe. You know I'm lazy. :grin01:
 
Roy Munson said:
Yep, Joe's right. I'm a Herpstat convert. I'll bet that a Helix would be fine for an incubator of this size, but I've found Herpstat to be more reliable, so I'd go with that.
That would require effort on my part, Joe. You know I'm lazy. :grin01:
Click to expand...

My dad's got a larger mini-fridge downstairs that would totally work for this purpose---at least I think so. Maybe I'll trade him mine and do some demo work on it.

Of course, I don't know about spending $130 on a thermostat for an incubator that I'm going to use 2 months out of the year. So perhaps I'd have to look into a different alternative, but I think that beats trying to incubate 10-12 clutches in my rack system.
 
Joejr14 said:
My dad's got a larger mini-fridge downstairs that would totally work for this purpose---at least I think so. Maybe I'll trade him mine and do some demo work on it.

Of course, I don't know about spending $130 on a thermostat for an incubator that I'm going to use 2 months out of the year. So perhaps I'd have to look into a different alternative, but I think that beats trying to incubate 10-12 clutches in my rack system.
Click to expand...
I won't be doing any more rack-incubating. I wasn't completely happy with the results last year, even though I had very few clutches.
 
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