Ball Python Breeding; Incubator Build

[@ck6152]

I see the cat had to get involved again 🤣 awesome video Rob and a nice incubator build.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Yes, she helped with the build. Jumped inside the incubator and made sure all was good.

[@thescalesartist7087]

Love the detailed explanation, Rob! Didn’t know it would be as simple as that to set up. I really like the thermostat 👍

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Simple is always best!

[@brewerboyzballpythons]

Great breakdown, I'm in the process of making a new incubator myself. Thank you for sharing.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hopefully you won't have the same issue with a fan adding too much heat. In cooler climates i think less of a problem.

[@pamcorbett9331]

That was great how you explained as you went along very nice incubator

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thank you! Hopefully we'll be putting eggs in it in the next few weeks.

[@MPRbyHamlin]

Its so strange how we suffer with climate but on different sides of the spectrum. Thats a good detailed video. Luckily I've experience on building these but for poultry.. atleast I dont need to mess around with a step motor for turning eggs lol. We've just gotta crack the ice off everything here Rob 🤣

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Haha....my fallback position if all else fails is to put the eggs on a shelf in the snake room and incubate at ambient temperature. I have actually used a commercial chicken egg incubator for snake eggs, with the turning motor removed of course. This had a heater/fan/thermostat built into the cover and it did maintain a very stable temperature, but keeping everything humid was a fight with this style of incubator. I have also used a cooler with water, aquarium heater/thermostat and a water pump for circulation. This one was very easy to set-up and get running stable at the perfect temperature, but everything inside was dripping with condensation and it was very messy. They all work, they all have different compromises and set-up difficulties and they are each better suited to a specific environment. All in all, the drinks cabinet style works best for me out here in the tropics and over a few successive builds I have simplified the components to just what I actually need and prefer not to actually modify the drinks cabinet, although I have done it that way too.

[@MPRbyHamlin]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls I agree about the drinks cabinet, its by far the best method ... from the research I've gathered. I am considering building a purpose built box with a pvc internal casing and insulating it, just like the refrigerator but a custom size and fixed components with wired in thermostats. All in good time tho Rob. Hopefully we're getting the announcement of a planned ease of lockdown tomorrow evening... so fingers crossed your lad can get over for Xmas this year or atleast a vacation 🤞

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hopefully so and thanks for the thought. Malaysia just got it's first batch of vaccine delivered yesterday, so it'll be a while yet before things get easier here.

[@charleyhendersonj.r.6297]

Hello Rob..very nice video well done

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks Charley. Hope you are doing well.

[@edwinralph45]

Thanks for the video Rob. I’ve just bought about a dozen snakes to go with the first one I got last year from New Forest Morphs and to add to the one that they very kindly gave us when my family did the collab on their Christmas specials. Can’t wait to get the new snakes here from various parts of the UK and Europe when shipping can start again. A couple of the females are bigger so hopefully will give me clutches next season but the 2022-23 season will be our first full season and this incubator build video is going to come in very useful later in the year when I need to build an incubator. When all of the snakes are here we are going to do a new collab with NFM and will reveal the new members of the family. I’d love your input when that happens with regards your thoughts on them. I’m very biased of course but I think I’ve got some pretty awesome combos focussing around Pieds, Ultramels and Clowns. Thanks again mate.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Exciting times ahead. Hopefully not too long to wait!

[@edwinralph45]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls picked up the first 4 snakes at the weekend and picking up 4 or 5 more this coming weekend. I’ve now got 7 waiting on the continent as well for when shipping resumes (ventured into some Lavender projects as well) so when everything is here we’ll have around 20. We’ve also decided on a name now and so the family youtube channel is on its way (the kids are very excited) so watch this space mate. Keep up with all the videos, I love watching them and can’t wait to see how many eggs you get from the project with ARP. I know you’ll probably have some now and if not then literally any day. 👍

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@edwinralph45 look forward to that! Egg video up tonight. The spotnose female was pretty feisty getting her off the eggs.

[@britesynth]

You are right about fans being a heat source, happened to me once which caused a huge temp spike up to 39C, what you could do instead is use it as an exhaust fan blowing hot air out of the incubator, very useful in the tropics, this is kinda how I set mine up, ambient temp around 30C and if it becomes too hot exhaust fan will do the job, nice video btw

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks britesynth. There are a lot of little detail things to change based on individual circumstances, but living in the tropics with ambient almost spot on for what eggs need, our incubators are a balancing act. Overheating, especially on hot days, is a bigger problem than adding no heat at all.

[@britesynth]

So true, overheating is really more of a problem and humidity issues due to high temp

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@britesynth I get by with a fraction of the vermiculite most people would use in their egg boxes. My incubator sits at around 80/90% humidity with nothing done to it. But then so does my snake room! Good for tropical snakes. Not good for us humans or for shooting long videos!

[@newforestmorphs1377]

Really enjoyed the build Rob. Thanks for sharing.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks Paul and Jared. Hope your season is going well. I'm expecting first eggs soon so the incubator is timely. It's running rock stable with the big flat USB fan but resisting my efforts to substitute something smaller. Everything i try adds some heat, which is the last thing i need more of out here!

[@newforestmorphs1377]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls Its going well thanks Rob. the new incubator is working fine now. It did so for 4 days. The mistake we made is that the cooler came broken - and I decided to convert our drinks cooler as a back up incubator. Jared did most of the conversion and we were both happy that everything was spot on. Our first clutch went in and we checked temps every day twice a day just to be sure. Jared went in and the cooler had started to work against the heat mats and temps dropped down to 13 degree c for a few hours. We were taken by surprise and though the clutch would be totally ruined. To our amazement 6 out of the eggs still showed healthy veins so we dried off the condensation and put them in our original incubator. Jared nursed them back to dry condition by using paper towels every 2 hours for 3 days or so. The middle egg was too wet to survive and went green very quickly. We candled the remaining 6 and one had no veins at all and so we think we have 5 eggs that have come through this ordeal! So we have to see what happens on the remaining 6 weeks - hopefully the embryos have not been damaged the sudden severe temp drop. Lesson learnt - not to rely on a faulty cooler as you incubator - we have now disconnected the cooling element - and its now been running spot for the last 10 days. Good luck with your season Rob, I hope those eggs come soon for you.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@newforestmorphs1377 that's an experience you certainly dont need. Cool rarely kills them immediately but a heat spike will. Maybe some of them will pull through. Fingers crossed.

[@newforestmorphs1377]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls thanks Rob

[@MalcolmCrabbe]

Rob, I gather the reason you want to retain the cooling functionality is so you can store the beers in there when the incubator is not required to incubate the eggs :) I'm in the process of tuning a custom built incubator by using the element from ZooMed Reptibator (the polystyrene box got trashed :( ) in basically a wooden viv but with additional 9mm dense insulation sandwiched between 4mm ply and 18mm outer panels, so all four walls are 31mm thick. With a PC fan running and the element controlled by a pulse proportional stat the air temp is 30.6c and 89.8% humidity on the shelf where the egg boxes sit. Using a heat gun I get mid 90c on the black lid of the egg box, but 30-31c on the sides of the egg box. - I was considering using the digital temperature sensor I use for monitoring the temperature and humidity inside an egg box to monitor the conditions where the eggs sit - is there any reason you don't suggest this in your video ?

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hi Malcom. It is indeed! Plus the tonics for G&T's! This is the tropics after all. The issue with the fans is pretty typical out here depending upon where the incubator is housed. Ambient temperature at 86F requires just the slightest nudge in temperature to get it up to where it needs to be and it's hardly really an incubator function at all. So a small fan, running none stop inside the insulated drinks cooler adds too much heat and I have to be very careful with what fan I use. A fan is usually exhausting air to the outside of a computer case, so the heat from the motor doesn't matter, but in a sealed incubator it does. Alternatively I could put the incubator in a cooler room where the A/C is on all the time and then the small amount of extra heat wouldn't matter. As long as the fan doesn't overheat the incubator when it's on, you can still use it and your thermostat will still be able to control the heating element to get the right temperature. The bigger the window the thermostat has to work with (from a base level temperature with just the fan running), the easier it is for the thermostat to control the final temperature. In my case, the thermostat switches off, adds no heat and the incubator still gets too hot. You noticed I used a very small amount of heat cable too. And its only at the bottom of the drinks cooler, not all round the sides and the back as well. This is because residual heat in the heat cables/mats can also cause a temperature overrun in my incubator, even after the thermostat has switched off, although a pulse proportional thermostat helps with that problem. It's all about providing the right amount of heat for the right amount of time and tuning your setup to suit your specific application. I know ARP has his incubators set up in his air conditioned snake room (28C) and uses the same type of fan that I can't use in mine without an issue.

[@inquiline]

Amazing video! Learned a lot! I will definitely be referencing this video when I build my own!

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Good luck with your own build!

[@HighClassPythonS]

Great video......looks good....to a successful incubation....good luck, this is my mentor..the best

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hi mate. I know you just built yours. Now you just need the confidence that it works so you don't mess with it all the time! I moved mine into its permanent position yesterday after shooting the last video segment and I left it exactly as it was set. It's been running untouched for 36 hours at 32C from top to bottom and 85% humidity inside the incubator (its the tropics), so my egg box set-up with the two vent holes is just perfect to work in conjunction with this incubator. Room for 10 clutches, so lets hope my females lay their clutches staggered otherwise I'll fill this one too.

[@HighClassPythonS]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls thats amazin...camt wait til i go to the tropics to visit..

[@sammythai99]

I've noticed the breeders here in Thailand are using the same coolers, but they are not adding heat or fans. They are just putting the egg boxes in and leaving them. They are monitoring the Temps though.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hi Samantha, yes perfectly possible to incubate eggs at room temperature here in the tropics. I know people who just put their egg boxes in a cupboard and leave them. As long as the humidity stays high in the egg boxes they will hatch. A cooler or drinks cabinet has a few advantages, even without added heat. It is buffered against daily temperature variations and its easier to keep high humidity inside the cooler so the egg boxes don't dry out. But you are still at the mercy of ambient temperature and the time the eggs take up to hatching is directly proportional to temperature. If the weather is slightly cooler, the eggs take longer. If its warmer, they hatch faster. So I prefer the consistency of adding just a little heat from a heat cable and thermostat to give me consistency on how long it takes my eggs to hatch. It's not much added heat. Just a nudge in temperature by a degree or so, but it also stays very stable day in and day out. Day 59 for hatching is normal in this current set-up. So I know to expect eggs to pip on that day and to watch for potential issues of they don't. It also helps if I am going to cut eggs rather than let them pip. I know exactly which day I can cut. At ambient temps of around 30C it can take as long as 70 days for eggs to hatch and can be highly variable so you can never be quite sure. My previous incubator was smaller and had no fan. It didn't need it. But this new incubator is taller and during my initial trials I noticed it had a dead zone at the top where convection was not properly reaching and mixing air. In order to allow me to use the top shelf as well as the rest of the incubator, I added a fan. I had to select a USB fan that did not add heat. Most fans I tried added heat and the temperature would overrun. This low heat USB computer fan works great and I get a very uniform temperature throughout the incubator now. The best advice I can give is to keep everything as simple as you possibly can. Only add heat if there is some benefit to doing so. Only add a fan if you really need it.

[@sammythai99]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls Thanks for responding so quick. My snakes are still too young too breed, but I am trying to figure out what to do before they get to that point. I was looking at every option. My house gets a bit cool in the evening and the morning during the time there would be eggs. I am not sure if I should find an egg incubator, let my females hatch their own eggs or make one like you or did what others her do. Any suggestions would be great.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@sammythai99 you have a ton of different options for making a small but functional incubator. I have made them from polystyrene boxes, Rubber Maid or Igloo type ice boxes, and of course drinks cabinets of various sizes. All you will need is a little heat cable wired through a simple thermostat. It's not complicated and you'll have the insurance that no matter how cool it gets in the mornings or evenings, your eggs will be incubating at a nice even temperature. I would also chat to the breeders who don't use any additional heat and see how long it takes their eggs to hatch and what to watch out for in that type of setup.

[@sammythai99]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls Where do you buy the heat cable? I have only been able to find heat pads here.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@sammythai99 both will work equally well.

[@niknoah1739]

This is an amazing video iv seen many different ones and this one really helped me to understand so thank you

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Glad it helped Nik. Thanks for dropping a comment.

[@laurahernandez2351]

I love the new incubator! When I'm ready to move to a larger one, I'll have to try that. Expecting that first clutch any day now. You have a couple expected in about a week , right? Looking forward to your next video. Laura

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks Laura. I have my fingers crossed for you. I'll have eggs in the next couple of weeks, but my females usually take longer than 30 days after shed to lay, so might be a touch longer. It's temperature related and my ambient is a little cooler than a conventional heat mat hot spot. If you build an incubator, it's easier than you might think. Keep it simple. Far easier to set-up and maintain. All you need is an insulated container (in my case the drinks cabinet which remains fully functional and completely intact), a source of heat connected to a thermostat and possibly a fan, although most small containers don't even need a fan. Far too many builds involve ripping stuff out, drilling holes, rewiring stuff, adding lights......which is great if you have the time and an electrical engineering degree, but the eggs don't really care. They just need the correct temperature and humidity.

[@laurahernandez2351]

@@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls I was going to try to build an incubator months ago, but watched a couple of videos and decided that was way more involved than I wanted to tackle. I bought one instead. If I had seen your video back then I would have done it.

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

@@laurahernandez2351 woops.....too late to save you from having to buy one, although I'm sure it'll work just fine. Next time!

[@Arctic_Morphs]

Thank you so much for doing this. I love your thorough detailed information!

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks Barbara. I think an understanding of how an incubator works is equally important as the "how to build one" part because everyone will have a slightly different set-up and often vastly different environmental conditions, so understanding what's happening helps to set-up and get everything stable even if your incubator is slightly different to mine.

[@josephtang5470]

thank you for sharing this ! what do you do if you lose power ?

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Hi Joseph. I live in the tropics. If we loose power, I don't do anything. Ambient is around 30c inside the house and if we loose power, all the A/C goes off too, so for the short time the power is off, I loose no temperature or humidity in the incubator. In fact, many people here do incubate at room temperature and its possible to do here with no issue. If you are less fortunate, keep your incubator shut while the power is out. Throw a blanket over it to insulate it further. The water bottles in the bottom of the incubator will act as a heat buffer for a while. I have always found that a little cooler is not a problem, it just slows the eggs down but doesn't kill them. A little hotter however, the opposite end of the spectrum, if you get temperature spikes, the eggs die. They are very sensitive to overheating.

[@handsomeboykennels4334]

once the fan is warm could u not turn the air conditioning on to the point it hits the perfect temp? like on 1?

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

A simple and intuitive question with a massively complicated answer. An incubator will need a heat source to maintain 88.5F or 31.6C unless you live somewhere uncomfortably warm. Without heat, your incubator will be too cold. Even if it's hot where you live, relying on an uncomfortably warm climate will be too unstable. Hot in the day, cooler at night. So using ambient where I live is also not a good solution. I use heat cable controlled by a thermostat to keep the temperature correct. On its own this works well enough in a small incubator, but this larger one for this build needs a fan to correct a dead spot at the top where convection currents do not reach. The problem with a fan that generates heat is that you cannot control that heat. If you connect the fan to the thermostat along with the heat cable, the fan switches off when you get to the correct temperature, thus no fan to circulate the heat any more. When the fan starts back up as the incubator starts to cool, unlike the heat cable which responds quickly, the fan motor takes longer to warm up. After an hour the fan motor is hot, the thermostat switches back off, the fan motor is still hot and overruns your temperature setting even though the thermostat has switched everything back off. The whole thing becomes too unstable to have any control over the temperature. A Pulse Proportional Thermostat makes things even worse for a fan. It regulates pulses of current to the heat cables to keep the temperature at the exact setting you need, which is great for the heat cables, but if you connect the fan as well, the fan is now either not working at all or its forever switching on and off. No good either. We need the fan to be on all the time so that heat is even throughout the incubator. In my climate, with the fan on all the time, the incubator overheats. Turning on the cooler in the drinks cabinet to bring temps back down, even on its lowest setting, is designed to run at 3C, so is much too cold even on minimum. So no we can't use the cooler in the drinks cabinet (which incidentally has its own fan as well!) as we'll turn the incubator back into a fridge no matter how much heat cable we use. And we now have two systems fighting each other rigged on different thermostats. One fighting to heat the incubator up. The other fighting to cool it down. On separate temperature control circuits. A disaster! Even if we could have a minumum setting that wasn't too cold, we would now face cold drafts inside the incubator which are undesirable for the eggs as well. Better to not use the fan than to use it and need to cool things down as well. Terribly inefficient. What we could do is put the incubator into a room with air conditioning so that ambient in the room is much lower, and the power required to heat the incubator is more than the heat from the fan motor. If your room is at 20C, you might find that the heat from the fan doesn't cause your incubator to overrun. But this is also expensive in the tropics. Using Air conditioning in a room just so you can run a fan in your incubator is an expensive and complicated system and air conditioners have a massive impact on humidity, sucking the moisture the eggs need from the air, necessitating a change to our egg box set up as well. In temperate climates with naturally cooler temperatures, fans rarely cause a problem because its cooler to start with. So the simplest solution to this issue is to find a fan that doesn't add heat. These types of fans are available from computer shops. You just have to find the right one. Far easier to control an incubator if it only has one source of heat controlled by a thermostat. Even then, adding a fan can make it unstable. Adding a cooler to make the hot fan cooler will almost certainly make it unstable (and expensive to run). The more variables you have, the more difficult it is to keep things stable. When you set-up an incubator for the first time you will discover that adjusting one thing causes everything else to change as well. Keeping it simple makes life a bit easier.

[@arbarraclough]

Sorry it took so long to get the thermostat to you!

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

It arrived in plenty of time. No eggs yet. Thank you for sending it. I know its harder in these restricted movement times.

[@johnwilliams2725]

👌🧐👍

[@RobertBarracloughRoyalBalls]

Thanks John.