I have finally mated my 2 veileds successfully yesterday and now have some questions about incubation and egg handling. I have been reading as much as I could on this site and the links that have been included on some of the posts. I do see that alot of people don't use an incubator. I would like to use an incubator because I live in Ohio and the weather is going to be changing to the cold crappy weather here soon, and I am worried about the temp fluctuations plus the loss of humidity when the furnace has to kick on. So my questions are these. I just bought a hovabator and am going to start playing around with this to see what the temps get to, but am I correct in understanding that 78 degrees is the ideal temp? And do you recommend varying the temps during the nights to a little cooler? I have read many different opinions on this and would like to hear from someone who has successfully hatched eggs. Also, what should the humidity level be? Also when I go to dig up the eggs, am I correct in saying that I should not turn the eggs, but make sure they stay the same way as when I dig them out? And one last question, I read in an article that the eggs should be touching, which his explanation made sense, but I see that pretty much everyone else spaces the eggs apart? Can anyone tell me the pros and cons to eggs touching versus not touching? Thanks again for all the help!!!!!!!

Congrats on the successful mating! The easy part is done. Now you have to get through the laying and the incubation!

Some advice....when the female is digging, don't let her see you watching her. It will make her abandon the hole and if it happens often enough it can lead to eggbinding. I also recommend that you put a suitable container of washed playsand in her cage now so that she has a place to dig to show you when she is ready to lay the eggs. Make sure you feed her a nutritious diet and supplement properly now too.

You said..."78 degrees is the ideal temp?"...that's fine.

You said..."do you recommend varying the temps during the nights to a little cooler?"...I have always had the temperatures on mine fluctuate a couple of degrees from day to night...and even slight variations from day to day since I do not incubate them in an actual incubator. I have close to 100% hatch rate of fertile eggs when doing veileds this way. There are many variations that seem to work for people though.

You said..."what should the humidity level be?"...if you take the vermiculite and moisten it so that when you take a fist full of it you can't squeeze out more than a drop of water the humidity should be right. You will get condensation on the lid and sides of the container that the eggs are in this way. If you make it too moist, the eggs will take on too much water and "explode".

I use shoebox sized plastic containers with lids to incubate the eggs in. I punch two very small holes in the lids. I fill the containers about half full of slightly moist vermiculite (see description above). (I only fill it half full so that the hatchlings will have "headroom" when they hatch.) I lay the eggs in rows in dents that I have made in the vermiculite with my thumb.

You said..."am I correct in saying that I should not turn the eggs, but make sure they stay the same way as when I dig them out?"...I have always tried not to turn them...but there is a window of time right after the female lays the eggs where it doesn't seem to matter. You can (and should) let the female lay the eggs, bury them and return to the branches before you dig them up without having to worry too much about it.

You said..."I read in an article that the eggs should be touching, which his explanation made sense, but I see that pretty much everyone else spaces the eggs apart? Can anyone tell me the pros and cons to eggs touching versus not touching?"...if the eggs are touching or quite close together they will all hatch at the same time virtually. They are said to give off something when they hatch that triggers the ones next to them to hatch. (You will find that if one egg hatches and the hatchling walks across other eggs while in the incubator those eggs will hatch next.)

If they are spread apart about 1" in all directions, they will hatch more individually. I feel that if they hatch more individually they will hatch when they are ready and not when they are "forced" to by being close together. I think when hatched more individually they have a better chance of survival...but that's just my opinion.

Good luck and patience!