Eggs into the eggbox?

Hey all you helpful mentors! I need some advice! I have some hatchrite I bought to incubate my cornsnake eggs for this season. I also have sphagnum moss if you think thats better. Anyway, I was reading about breeding and the pictures of the 2 possible incubation substrates were damp vermiculite (the eggs in rows individually) and peat moss (eggs in clumped mass). If eggs stick together when freshly layed, wont making them into individual rows impossible? If I put the clump into the box with hatchrite, wont the bottom eggs suffocate?

If they're laid in a clump, I keep them that way in the incubator. I've never seen the point of trying to pull them part - being a bit hamfisted I'd just risk rupturing good eggs.

The heat sources for my incubators are underneath the egg containers, so all I've found is that the ones at the bottom of the clump hatch first.

Both vermiculite and sphagnum moss are very light, even when damp. The eggs won't suffocate. Remember that in the wild, Corn eggs are usually buried in leaf litter, dirt or similar, to hide them away from predators.

I use both vermiculite and sphagnum moss! I create a bed of damp vermiculite and make a well (or dents for individual eggs) that the eggs sit in. Then I cover them over completely with a layer of damp moss.

I hatched my clutch last year with it completely surrounded by sphagnum moss. I didn't pack it around the eggs. I had a "fluffed" bottom layer that I placed the clump on, then surrounded it with more 'fluffed' damp moss.

As you can see, they hatched fine. I moved the moss on top off to one side once they began pipping, so I could see easier.

You can bury a clump in HatchRite and not worry. here's one: (The two big eggs are unrelated!)

Here's another: (I cover the eggs with a light blanket of slightly damp sphagnum moss).

Nanci, do you wet your HatchRite at all? I did last year, basically just pouring water into the bottom of the container, the top HatchRite wasn't really wet at all. Kept the humidity up real well this way I think.

Ya how is hatchrite? Does it work well? Good for cornsnakes?

Originally Posted by wax32

Nanci, do you wet your HatchRite at all? I did last year, basically just pouring water into the bottom of the container, the top HatchRite wasn't really wet at all. Kept the humidity up real well this way I think.

No, I didn't. It feels dry, but I don't think it really is. I put barely damp moss over the top. I re-moistened the moss if there was no fog in the egg container. My containers didn't have holes.

I also used HatchRite last year. I placed a layer of sphagnum on top of the eggs, just like Nanci. No extra water was added.