From UroWiki
The following is Troy Jones' account of incubating and hatching his eggs, using a variation of the Mark Walsh incubation method:
First year
A clutch of eggs in an incubator, waiting to hatch.
"The first year I hatched them out I used a
hova-bator. I filled the bottom of the hova-bator with moist vermiculite around three to one vermiculite to water ratio until the vermiculite covered the screen shelf That comes with the hova-bator’s, I covered the screen around a couple inches worth of the vermiculite. I made indentations in the vermiculite and placed the eggs straight into the vermiculite in the hova-bator no containers, I had a small container of water in the corner to help with humidity and incubated the eggs at 86-89 degrees [Fahrenheit; about 30-31.6'C]. That first year my female laid 4 infernal yellow eggs and then 21 days later she laid 8 fertile ones of which I hatched out 7 of them."
Second year
"The second year three of my females laid eggs all around the same time so I opted to incubate them in separate containers. I punched pin holes in the top of the plastic containers and filled them full of moist vermiculite, with a one to three ratio of water to vermiculite. On the first and second clutch the lids were only lightly placed on the plastic containers. After the first clutch failed I noticed that the plastic containers did not seem to be building up any moisture on the inside so I sealed the second container and moisture did build up, but then so did the mold I lost all but one of the eggs."
Third year
"On clutch number three I added the eggs to the plastic container and sealed the lid from day one. Moisture built up and all eight of these eggs hatched. I did mist the lids of the plastic containers around once a month and had a small separate container of water in the incubator. Incubation temperatures were 86-89 degrees. Clutch one and two were from females that had never laid before but clutch number three was from the same female I was successful with the first year. Unfortunately I did not get to try a 3rd year as our house got hit by a tornado and I was forced to sell my collection. I have since learned that misting the lids is a bad idea as it is best not to add moisture where it can come in contact with the egg. If you need to add moisture use a syringe and add it in the corners where it does not come in contact with the eggs."
Conclusions
"I had a lot of egg failures due to mould, either I got the vermiculite to moist and the eggs would mold or I would get them to dry and they would crash. For me, repeating successful incubation even using the same method is hit-and-miss at best and I am still studying, trying to get a method that I can repeat year after year."
See also
