Transporting eggs and measuring color?

[DrCarrotTail]

I'm going to be working with a local science teacher to have her 8th graders hatch out a couple of my leopard gecko eggs. I was wondering if anyone has any experience or advice for getting my Leo eggs to her school with no ill effect. I know temperatures under 76 can kill them and fluctuations in temp can be bad. The eggs I'll be bringing them will have been incubating at a steady 82 for 6 weeks when I move them. I was thinking of taking them in an insulated box with a couple water bottles of 84 degree water inside. It's only about a 20 minute ride to the school and their incubator will be set up and waiting for the eggs. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?

As an aside, I was wondering if anyone knew of or could help me brainstorm a manual tool that could be used to gauge color intensity in a scientific manner? I was going to work with the kids to come up with a way to gauge the tangerine color of the Leo's as they mature. This way they could collect some data and think about things in a more scientific manner in addition to having an exciting project to end the school year

 

[acpart]

Can't help with the color guage, but it sounds like a fascinating project.
If your incubator is portable, you may be able to get an adaptor so you can plug it into your cigarette ligher outlet in the car. Otherwise, hot water bags or even those 40 hour heaters sound fine. I once had to walk my incubator over to the neighbors a few blocks away when my power went off and it all worked out ok.

Aliza

 

[OhioGecko]

This sounds like a really cool project. Your water bottle idea is a winner They eggs can fluctuate some without any issues so I don't think a 20 min drive will hurt them any if you have them setup as you described.

As far as documenting the color, maybe they could use a color chart and document the geckos weekly change and directly after sheds.

Good luck!

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Cool! Thanks for the replies. I just have a hovabator type incubator and I have 20 other eggs in it so I didn't want to move the entire thing. I was just planning to microwave the bottles and let them sit till they get to about mid 80 degrees and rush there...lol. Weather is getting warmer so it might not be too much of an issue even without heat but i figured better safe than sorry. I would hate for them not to hatch for the sake of the geckos and the kids :/

It might be time to go "borrow" some paint tab things from Lowe's for the color....lol I assume there's gotta be some sort of scientific thing out there to precisely gauge it ....just a matter of figuring out what it is and whether its economical to get ahold of. Maybe my friends that majored in textiles will come in handy after all...haha

 

[littlegreenmouse]

Why not copy this color wheel (its nice because it has varying degrees of deeper color tones as you go to the inside of the wheel), label the numbered colors with letter codes (outside color can be "A" then next darker tone "B", "C" etc...). So lets say a gecko matched the yellow-orange 3 shades in at color #5, that gecko would be labeled as "Color Shade 5C". Once labeled laminate it too so it'll withstand a lot of kids handling it. Hope this helps!

 

[SaSobek]

Eggs can get much cooler then you think and be ok. when i moved my collection i am sure the eggs got into the low 70's and still hatched. I would not recommend any heat at all during transport. to much heat will kill them faster then to cold. 20 min is not enough for them to have any effect to the cold. when collecting eggs i actually leave eggs out on my work table for up to an hour and have no ill effects. Eggs are much stronger then you think. If you need any more help feel free to private message me. here is a video of me collecting eggs. [video=youtube;eDXPqqGKe4g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDXPqqGKe4g&feature=share&list=UUiN4Hn5XG_AniJyEFHusDkA[/video]

 

[B&B Geckos]

There are several instruments out there to quantify/measure light intensity. However,as far as I know, most involve using computers and can be expensive. Another option is to get qualitative data by taking photos. However, they must control all variables, so that the lighting and background is identical each time they take a photograph. Then they'll be able to compare and contrast the geckos' color more accurately.

 

[DrCarrotTail]

Thanks all for the responses! Eggs are delivered and hatched this morning! I put them in a shipping box with a couple warm adult geckos...haha. The temp in the box stayed a pretty consistent 78-80 degrees on our way over there. The egs were so pretty close to hatching so I think the critical period for worrying about temps was over. Kids will be moving them out of the incubator this afternoon. I gave them a 6 qt container in a 10 gallon tank with an UTH to raise them for a few weeks until school is over the first week of June I can't wait for pictures!

For the color, I'm thinking the kids come up with the way of standardizing photography conditions and we use a RGB meter on a computer or iPad. I may hunt down a class to explore that with next spring

 

[LepoInc]

I am glad I came across this thread because I am moving to Chicago which is about a 3hr drive and I am worried I may have eggs incubating when I have to make the trip, so maybe if I can't get my hands on a cigarette adapter, I could probably just leave them in the incubator with the water bottles without any serious fluxuations

 

[DrCarrotTail]

I picked up a box that turned a cigarette adapter into an outlet at a Walmart about 10 years ago for $30. Tey might even be cheaper now? I put a few adult geckos in an insulated box with the eggs on my drive up to the school and they were warm enough to raise the temp in the box to 80. From what I understand - a bit too cold is better than too hot so I decided not to use the water bottles. You could also just put on some shorts and keep your whole car at the right temp....haha. Good luck on your drive!!