Some egg questions...

1. Leave them in a clump or separate?
2. If separating when is it best to do it?
3. 1/2 bury the eggs or lay them in small dimples on top of medium?
4. What is the earliest pipping in days?
5. What is the longest pipping in days?
6. In your honest opinion what is the best medium? I know this will vary....
7. Best incubators/methods? I know this can vary and be a personal thing too.

I am wondering all of this since this is my first year breeding of many to come hopefully. All so if you feel I have left something important out please feel free to add and as always thanks for the information and replies.
Michael

1. Leave them in a clump, if you separate them, you'll probably damage them
2. see 1
3. I bury them halfway in vermiculite, maybe others do different? especially when using another material like sphagnum.
4. 5. No personal experience here (only once hatched eggs), but I hear average 55 to 90 days
6. for incubating I suppose? Vermiculit and sphagnum are good. I believe perlite is used to, maybe others can share their experience with that?
7. Like you said, this varies a lot. I use the simpel "au bain marie" , water with an aquarium heater, rack above it with the box of eggs in vermiculite. It worked perfectly for me last year, and this year so far so good.

My experience in all this is limited, but like you surely know, there are a lot of people here with years of breeding behind them. They will probably have more to say.

Good luck with your breeding anyway, keep us informed!

As I re read my post (a little late ), I have to add that the au bain marie is placed in a mostly closed tank. Like I put it above, it looks like I just have it open in a room

1. Leave them clumped. Trying to separate eggs can cause tears and ruin the eggs.
2. I have and do separate some of my eggs, BUT only if they are freshly laid, within a few minutes, and they come apart with out ANY force.
3. I use perlite or vermiculite and put them half way with a light coat of damp moss on top. Make sure every thing is not too wet. When wrung out with your hand you shouldn't get no more than a drop or two of water.
4. My earliest pips were at day 54.
5. My latest pips were at day 80. I have heard of some going to around day 100.
6. See #3 above.
7. All my eggs are on a shelf in the pantry, converted to snake room. I keep a small heater in there to keep temps around 85. This time of year the heater isn't really needed. Temps go from around 72 night time up to around 87 day time. It's more like a natural environment and my eggs and babies do very well.

Good luck!

1. Leave them in a clump. There's no value in separating them and as mentioned above, trying to do so just risks damage to good eggs. If you're using a heat source from below (like a heat mat) then remember that the bottom eggs will be slightly warmer and expect them to hatch first.
2. N/A - see above
3. 1/2 bury the eggs and put a damp paper towel or some damp sphagnum moss over the half that are above the vermiculite, to keep humidity up around them.
4 and 5 depend on what temperature you incubate at. I incubate at around 80-82 degrees and on average, mine pip at about 64 days.
6. I use vermiculite, with sphagnum moss or paper towl over the top. Have tried Perlite but found it difficult to get the humidity right.
7. I rig my own incubators from whatever I have around the house (you know you're a proper Corn-head when you have spare heat mats and stats knocking about!). Essentially, it's just an insulated box with a regulated heat source - nothing complicated really.