# corn snake eggs incubation



## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

ive just been given 25 corn snake eggs and ive put them in a homemade incubator.
its a polly box with a thermostat and a heatmatt.
im waiting on a digital thermometre to arrive so untill then i cant get the temp right eny sugestions ?.
thanks in advance Brett:2thumb:


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## plumpton1887 (Apr 19, 2010)

The thermostat should give the temp that you want. Mine do and I have 100% hatch rates in all of them. I have 28 Incubators, Not all of them are home-made. 

I have a normal themometer and a digital and im getting the same reading off each. But saying that me and maths and science for that fact  Straight A's in School then college and Uni  

Just play around see how far you get


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## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

plumpton1887 said:


> The thermostat should give the temp that you want. Mine do and I have 100% hatch rates in all of them. I have 28 Incubators, Not all of them are home-made.
> 
> I have a normal themometer and a digital and im getting the same reading off each. But saying that me and maths and science for that fact  Straight A's in School then college and Uni
> 
> Just play around see how far you get


 ive got it on 84 at the moment this is my first time incubating eggs so you can emagine i wanna get it rite :2thumb: but when u open the incubator should you notice a big change in temp as in feel heat coming out of it ?


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

Brett said:


> ive got it on 84 at the moment this is my first time incubating eggs so you can emagine i wanna get it rite :2thumb: but when u open the incubator should you notice a big change in temp as in feel heat coming out of it ?


No, you shouldn't really. This is likely to be caused by having the probe for the stat on the mat, and also because you don't have a digital thermometer.
The dial types are notoriously inaccurate, it sounds as if the temperatures are too high.
Also, you cannot rely on the temperature dial on the thermostat, again this is not accurate, in fact I ignore these and calibrate by using the thermometer.
This is a prime example of why you should always set up the incubator before the eggs go in. I appreciate that in your case this was not possible, but perhaps you should have let someone with an incubator up and running take the eggs to at least give them a chance.
Once you have the digital thermometer, put the probe inside the egg box, you may be surprised at the reading. Corn eggs should be kept at 28C.


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## plumpton1887 (Apr 19, 2010)

If you keep taking the lid off the incubator then heat will esacpe as heat rises. What i have done on mine is fit a viewing window on the top so then I do not have to disturn the temps etc. But I played around with mine for ages before i got them all running at what i needed. As above you should of let someone incubate them for you to give them a chance why you were sorting your incubator out. If you intended to breed them, then you should of done more research before hand. Google has it all. Or ask questions on here, i have bred corn snakes with very successful hatch rates


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

plumpton1887 said:


> If you keep taking the lid off the incubator then heat will esacpe as heat rises. What i have done on mine is fit a viewing window on the top so then I do not have to disturn the temps etc. But I played around with mine for ages before i got them all running at what i needed. As above you should of let someone incubate them for you to give them a chance why you were sorting your incubator out. If you intended to breed them, then you should of done more research before hand. Google has it all. Or ask questions on here, i have bred corn snakes with very successful hatch rates


Therein lies the problem - he hasn't bred them, he drove to pick the eggs up from someone else who had bred them but didn't want to incubate the eggs, then drove the eggs back to put them in an incubator which had not been set up properly to start with. I am still dubious that the embryos will have survived the moving around, although he is adament on the related thread that corn eggs are hardy and will be quite okay being taken by car for some distance to be incubated. Even if those embryos have survived and not become detached, then I would again doubt successful incubation - having hatched a large number of corns and other North American colubrids over the last few years, I have never lifted a lid off an egg box to feel heat coming from it!


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## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

ian14 said:


> Therein lies the problem - he hasn't bred them, he drove to pick the eggs up from someone else who had bred them but didn't want to incubate the eggs, then drove the eggs back to put them in an incubator which had not been set up properly to start with. I am still dubious that the embryos will have survived the moving around, although he is adament on the related thread that corn eggs are hardy and will be quite okay being taken by car for some distance to be incubated. Even if those embryos have survived and not become detached, then I would again doubt successful incubation - having hatched a large number of corns and other North American colubrids over the last few years, I have never lifted a lid off an egg box to feel heat coming from it!


 i wasnt adament that they would be 100% ok at all i just said that i know of a couple of people that have done this and all have hatched ok with the exception of the odd dud egg


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

I've driven 50 miles with 12 very badly dehydrated bullsnake eggs on the floor. Two hatched normally. So I would expect most of those corn snake eggs to survive the drive.

Like Ian14, I'm worried about the temperature. I'd get the eggs out of the incubator and get a cheap alcohol-filled thermometer from a hardware store right away. That is plenty good enough for the incubator's the first approximation.


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## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

paulh said:


> I've driven 50 miles with 12 very badly dehydrated bullsnake eggs on the floor. Two hatched normally. So I would expect most of those corn snake eggs to survive the drive.
> 
> Like Ian14, I'm worried about the temperature. I'd get the eggs out of the incubator and get a cheap alcohol-filled thermometer from a hardware store right away. That is plenty good enough for the incubator's the first approximation.


woohoo some 1 else that has done it and you had yours on the floor i was holding mineraised in the air for the 10 min journy absorbing most fo the bumps i could as for the temp im getting a digi thermometer bought round tonight :2thumb:


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## spirit975 (May 15, 2007)

On a day like today you really shouldn't be feeling the heat coming out of the incubator.

How come you didn't get it sorted sooner? Especially as you arranged to take the eggs some days in advance?


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## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

spirit975 said:


> On a day like today you really shouldn't be feeling the heat coming out of the incubator.
> 
> How come you didn't get it sorted sooner? Especially as you arranged to take the eggs some days in advance?


 also forgot to add i cant feel eny heat coming from the incubator i was just asking if you should or not as i couldnt form mine :2thumb: and i didnt get it sorted sooner because when people say they will give you eggs for free i dont tend to believe them :lol2: untill they sent me a message saying the eggs are being layed but so far all the eggs are still looking perfect how long would it be before they went bad if i was doing it wrong ?


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## paulh (Sep 19, 2007)

Brett said:


> also forgot to add i cant feel any heat coming from the incubator (snip)
> but so far all the eggs are still looking perfect how long would it be before they went bad if i was doing it wrong ?


If the temperature was over 115 Fahrenheit, the eggs would be dead in less than an hour. As you don't feel any heat from the incubator, my guess is that you have over a week to get things sorted out. The sooner it's sorted the better, of course.


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## Brett (Jul 21, 2009)

paulh said:


> If the temperature was over 115 Fahrenheit, the eggs would be dead in less than an hour. As you don't feel any heat from the incubator, my guess is that you have over a week to get things sorted out. The sooner it's sorted the better, of course.


 yep well i have a thermometre coming either tomoz or monday :2thumb:


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