• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Moving eggs

A

Asrelius

New member
Hi all,

I'm off to Morocco for 2 weeks soon and the eggs I have incubating will be 6 weeks old at that point and so may well have not hatched yet, they're at 28 degrees currently.

I could give the incubator to my father to look after as he is literally a 3 minute drive down the road from me however; he can be a little clumsy and I have visions of him telephoning me and describing some kind of 'crash, bang, wallop' scenario and that he's killed them.

I also have the option of leaving the incubator with a work colleague who works as an animal care technician, only snag is that she's about 20 - 30 minutes away (depending on traffic). So, would the eggs be fine if the incubator is switched off for that length of time? They'd most likely have to be removed, still in the egg container and held by a passenger in the car.

All advice appreciated.
 
What are the temps in your house? It's probably safer to leave them sitting out at your place...
 
I believe he means he's going to be gone for a while and the eggs are likely to hatch while he's gone.

Another member recently had to move his eggs, I believe he stated that he left them in the incubator and surrounded the eggs box with newspaper so the wouldn't shift to much. In my opinion, I'd take the eggs to your friend if your worried about your father being able to take care of them properly. Being unplugged for a hour (time to set up in the car, drive and set up at the new place) should be alright. Just be careful while your driving, no big bumps or sharp turns and you should be alright.
 
Oops I missed the part about the having the be removed but still in the egg box... I'd wrap them in something like a towel to hold the heat in some... That should be alright for the drive as well, of course I don't know the temps in your area but if you had to i'm sure you could run the heater in your car...
 
Airidies said:
I believe he means he's going to be gone for a while and the eggs are likely to hatch while he's gone.
Click to expand...

I'm aware of this. If the temps are decent, they could leave the egg container out, poke some air holes in it, and just let the babies hatch. Nobody needs to be present...
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.

The eggs are at 28c (82f) in the incubator. It's a home-made incubator and they are placed within a plastic container full of moss. The container itself is above a heat mat attached to a thermostat.

I think I'll take them to my friend but put the heating on in the car before getting in with the eggs.
 
Sorry Airenlow I'm a little confused as to the practicalities of what you suggest.

I could leave them in the incubator with it turned on. Doing so means they'd hatch out, escape from the egg container since the lid is ajar to allow entry of the thermostat probe and fall to the bottom and just writhe around for the 2 weeks that I am in Morocco.

I could turn it off although living in the UK that would reduce the temp a lot quite quickly. It might be summer here but that doesn't mean that we see much of the sunshine.

Taking the egg container out of the incubator and placing it...in something larger I guess...would also result in a large loss of heat.
 
Asrelius said:
Sorry Airenlow I'm a little confused as to the practicalities of what you suggest.

I could leave them in the incubator with it turned on. Doing so means they'd hatch out, escape from the egg container since the lid is ajar to allow entry of the thermostat probe and fall to the bottom and just writhe around for the 2 weeks that I am in Morocco.

I could turn it off although living in the UK that would reduce the temp a lot quite quickly. It might be summer here but that doesn't mean that we see much of the sunshine.

Taking the egg container out of the incubator and placing it...in something larger I guess...would also result in a large loss of heat.
Click to expand...

And then there's the question of moisture too. Currently I spray the moss to keep it moist. Not sure by how much it would dry out if I left the eggs alone for 2 weeks.
 
and your father can't come to your house to check on them daily and mist them if necessary? That would be the easiest thing I think...
 
well he doesn't drive.

I guess a lot of this is all down to how likely it is that the eggs would hatch in the 2 weeks I am away for...as I said they'll be 6 weeks when I leave...are they likely to hatch while I am away?
 
I think there is a good chance they will hatch around the time you'll come back home. You said he only lived about 3 min from your house? Can't he come by bike or so? (maybe not every day, but every 2 or 3 days?)
 
Actually you're right...he got a bike a few days ago, forgot about that. Although that wouldn't prevent his clumsiness but then I suppose if he only he came down every 2 days or so he wouldn't interfere much anyway.

In your experience do hatchlings move about much upon hatching? I'm guessing they do.
 
As far as I'm experienced (I had 4 or 5 clutches in total), they'll stay together in the box, but I've always had closed lids, so... Maybe you'll need to close the lid before you leave (if possible)
 
If you are able to get the lid closed then you would loose as much humidity and he wouldn't have to be misting quite as often and probably put your mind at ease a little more. And maybe if you are able to put the incubator on the ground you won't risk them falling off of something. But I do think don't move them if you don't have to.
 
Another option is to reduce the heat slightly so to increase the incubation time, thus they wont hatch till your back...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top