Recently I have been offered a job I can’t refuse out of state, my fiancé and I are planning on being out of where we are at by June/July. I have a couple females who are gravid and just ovulated not to long ago. Has anyone ever moved with eggs? This will be about a 20 hour trip
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I will start with, I have never done this.
But, it seems that if heat and humidity are are stable, you should be good on that part of it.
My only concern would be the movement. If you can keep vibration and movement down, then you should be good. I do not know of this will have any effect on them, but since they are not moved or turned naturally, this could be an issue.
If me, I would have a heat source that won’t fail or be turned off. This could be something plugged in for heating water while traveling.
I would try to suspend it so no vibration will be picked up from the seat. Also to allow minimum movement from rough roads and stop/go situations. Something more stiff then loose so it is not swinging or bouncing. This could be hung from a small rod (curtin rod) supported near the roof.
Good luck and congratulations on your new adventure. Let us know what happens after the hatch.
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I have moved with eggs and they survived! I purchased heat tape, another herpstat, I had a raised cooling rack (for cakes and cookies), and an old timey igloo icebox. I put egg boxes on the cooling rack, kept the herpstat at 91 and prayed.
I did change up my eggbox though for the move. I got hatchrite, and buried the eggs about 3/4 of the way in it so they wouldn’t roll around and would stay firmly in the same place I left them. Both clutches surivived.
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I’ve read about burying them so they don’t move and it’s a great idea. How did you power the herpstat? 12v plug in the cab? I’m thinking about using some sort of car generator or power inverter. How far was your move if you don’t mind me asking? I plan on going the full 20 hours straight. I’m hoping I can get out sooner than later and before my females actually drop eggs. That’s wishful thinking though, I’m not sure which would be better, having them lay or take them gravid
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I’ll start by saying that I also haven’t done ball python eggs on the move, but I did do queen honey bees in queen cells with a similar setup, and it went well. A couple of notes, you will want a true sine wave inverter to power the herpstat, and your 12V plug will be plenty of power (usually limited at 15A - ~150W).
Here is the info from herpstat Compatibility with power inverters, UPS devices, and generators. : Spyder Robotics LLC
I personally have a Renogy inverter that is a pure sine wave inverter that is great for this and lots of uses of mine (from computer stuff to emergency charging of an EV), but it’s also a bit larger than you need (I think about 700W is their lowest) and so more $$ because of that than you may be able to find from other manufacturers.
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I’ve done a couple 2 hour moves no problem. Heated up some water jugs to keep cooler warm but of course your move is much longer. But apparently the eggs are fairly resilient to jostling and some temp fluctuations I even had eggs laid in snake bag on trip and that was ok too.
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My husbands truck has a plug in that I could connect the herpstat to. It was a three hour drive. I would rather they lay eggs and then handle it on my own, then them be gravid and slugging out.
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