# Grace Period for Overdue Hermann's Eggs?



## theccentric (Aug 16, 2012)

Hello! My name is Nick, I'm an American living in Bulgaria for the past 5 years and I currently have 4 Hermann's eggs which hit day 56 yesterday (Wednesday, 14.08). They have been incubated in a homemade incubator at a pretty steady 31.5 - 32 Celsius with between 65 - 78% humidity, and is ventilated well enough to prevent anoxia. There were originally 6 eggs but 1 turned out to be infertile and the other stopped developing shortly after the embryo formed. As far as I can tell, these 4 are ready to hatch but I don't see pipping or any other goings on.

Was just wondering.... what sort of grace period do I need to give these little buggers before I start worrying about them not making it out of there alive?


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## ALDABRAMAN (Aug 16, 2012)

Welcome!


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## Yvonne G (Aug 16, 2012)

Welcome, Nick.

I don't know about hermann's eggs, but when my turtle and tortoise eggs are ready to hatch, I'll spritz warm water over them every day, sometimes a couple times a day. It seems to help them be able to break out.


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## Kristina (Aug 16, 2012)

My philosophy is to let them go until they either collapse or burst. I have known of people who have had eggs that were moldy, nasty, and months overdue hatch out perfect babies.

I also agree with misting lightly with warm water.


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## theccentric (Aug 16, 2012)

Kristina said:


> My philosophy is to let them go until they either collapse or burst. I have known of people who have had eggs that were moldy, nasty, and months overdue hatch out perfect babies.
> 
> I also agree with misting lightly with warm water.



Hi. Thanks for the responses. As far as spritzing the eggs directly with water...considering the fact that the humidity level of the air in the incubator is 80%, wouldn't spraying them with water pose a potential hazard of suffocating the embryos? It would raise the humidity level considerably, not to mention that the water would be in direct contact with the eggs until it evaporates.


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## tortadise (Aug 16, 2012)

Welcome! hermanns tend to take a grace period of 55-72 days, so just keep in there. Sometimes may take longer. As stated above just reference those items as a good indication, Starting to smell, cave in, or become rotten. Ive seen some weird things in hatch times. Had a redfoot hatch 3 months after maximum average of days. As long as you know theyre good and not smelling then leave em.


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## CactusVinnie (Aug 17, 2012)

They can spend up to 100 days in wild nests, wich are far from cooler... they rise up to 40*C. OTOH, nights are cool, especially in the earliest part of incubation. That push the hatchling date later than incubator eggs.
If you surely have 80%, do not add moisture. Just be patient.
BTW, you will have mostly males, if not 100% males...


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## theccentric (Aug 25, 2012)

Hi everyone. Jut got back from vacation in Greece. They started hatching while we were on vacation... of course. 3 out of the 4 have hatched, waiting on the 4th. Was surprised to find out that they are actually Greek tortoise eggs and not Hermann's, so sorry for misleading everyone but I myself didn't even know since the eggs were given to me.


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