Substrate-less incubation?

[Blue Apple Herps]

I didn't want to derail or hijack Wade's thread so I started this one. Has anyone here ever incubated corn eggs using the substrate less method. I first saw it with bp eggs, where you have a thick layer of perilite and fill the bottom half with water. Then put a piece of egg crate on top and put the eggs on top of that. So the humidity is still 100% and temps are regulated by incubator, but the eggs aren't in or on any substrate.

I did it last year with bp eggs and got 100% hatch rate. Was thinking it might work with corn eggs as well?

 

[Eli173]

I've heard of a few people who have tried that with good results. Here is a link to a thread that it's discussed a bit.
http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34965&highlight=incubation+substrate

 

[Christopher Feenan]

It's commonly done with Green Tree Pythons - I've done it succesfully several times with them, but I like that corns are easier to hatch, and glad I don't have to mess around with no-substrate with them. In GTP's , a perlite water source is usually not used, just a thin layer of water on top of egg crate, closed inside of an almost airtight/watertight container with the thermostat probe placed inside this egg container. No worries about too much or too little water, that's for sure. Many variations on that basic recipe, of course - different amounts of water, thermostat placement, what to do with the condensation buildup on the container lid, etc etc

 

[Christopher Feenan]

Here is a link to Damon Salceies incubator design with info about no-substrate. Damon hatched the first albino chondro, and his site is worth a look.

incubator/no-substrate link

 

[Blue Apple Herps]

Bump for some more thoughts/experiences?

 

[danielle]

I have only incubated rhacodactylus eggs in a similar way, but really with no substrate. Last season I ran out of hatchrite and while waiting for my order had 3 females lay. I didn't want to trash that many eggs so on a whim I took some platic tupperware with NO holes in it and a moist papertowel folder like a square smaller than the actual tupperware. Then I put the small moit square in the tupperware and set the eggs on the edges of the square. I can't really explain and I can't find my pic files with the set-up, but basically the eggs sat in the space between the moist papertowel and the tupperware with the top on. It was opened once a week for ventilation with room temps in the low to mid seventies and all 6 hatched quite healthy. I misted the top of the tupperware once a week and never even dealt with mold like I expected. I did use the hatchrite with the rest of my eggs as usual, but kept these to prove they actually would hatch after some people told me I was retarded. After my silly experiment a few others from the repashy forums tried and got the same results though I am not exactly recommending this method, but in a crunch it did the job! I know after this topic came up on that forum a lot of others described using water in the bottom of something like a tupperware container with the eggs held avove the water for humidity, but didn't put them in perlite. Instead they made this thing out of I am guessing plastic that was ribbed so the eggs didn't roll. They were talking about only doing this with their BP's though so I am not sure about the needs of corn eggs.

 

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

I incubated last year with a sort of this method. I used my regular medium which is something I mix together and then I place glass marbles or large glass aquruim rocks on that medium and place the eggs on that. The eggs never touch the meduim. 100% last year and I will be doing the same this year. Works very well for me. The first year I had some eggs drown because of being directly on the meduim (eggs that were done in a cluster) so last year I came up with this and it worked like a dream. Even with the clustered eggs.