Once we have the holes cut and the A/C and vent mounted, it's time to insulate the container. Every side of the container is steel, and every side of the container exposed to the sun will heat up and transmit that heat into the container. The more you can prevent that the better, and barring that, the more you can isolate the inside of the container from its metal sides and top the better.

The best product we have found for both of these are the reflective insulation panels found at most home improvement stores. Measuring 4 x 8 feet, these styrofoam-type panels cost from $10 to $15 each, and have a reflective foil surface on one side with a paper backing on the other. Easily trimmed to shape with an X-ACTO blade or even a sharp pocket knife, it took less than an hour and a can of spray adhesive to insulate the back and side walls, and another hour to seal the gaps between the panels with duct tape.

After turning on the A/C and letting the unit cool down, the next big problem to resolve came when I opened the big steel door. The minute it swung open, all the cool air came rushing out, and in seconds the unit was at the same temperature as the outside air. I had already planned on a fix for this, and within no time I had framed a wall and a pre-hung door 4 feet from the end, thus creating a small storage area and a "cool door" that could be opened without losing the inside temperature.

Finally I tackled the biggest problem, the roof. Initially I wanted to build a steel roof over the container, but in the end I Gorilla-glued 5 of the 3/4 reflective insulation panels to the outside of the roof. Designed for exterior use, they will survive all but the largest hail, and once the glue had dried, be impervious to wind. Best of all, where touching the roof from inside was once similar to grabbing a hot dinner plate, it was now cool to the touch and easily air-conditioned.

Now our mouse shack is ready to go!

Steel CONEX containers would be the perfect mouse shacks, if the sun didn't have a habit of turning them into gigantic ovens. But with a little ingenuity, a small air conditioner, and a reasonable amount of insulation you can quickly turn that oven into something cold enough to store meat in, even in the Texas sun.

CONEX boxes are available in many different types and sizes from gigantic 40-foot monsters down to tiny 6- or 8-foot units. Some are designed as cooler units, referred to as "reefers," but most are just giant steel boxes designed to carry goods in bulk around the world as deck cargo on ships, trains, or trucks.

The price varies, but used reefer units are generally out of the reasonable price range with 20-foot units going for $6000-$9000. A standard, non-leaker, used 20-foot CONEX box can usually be located on Craigslist for around $2000-$2500, and can be moved by most flat bed tow trucks a reasonable distance for $100 to $150. Larger, and heavier, 40-foot units usually require a specialized delivery truck, a lot more room, and a lot more money.

We found our CONEX box locally on Craigslist for $2100, and had a tow truck deliver it to our site for $150. Our unit came with passive louvered vents on the front door and the rear, although most do not. Once the unit was in place, we made the first of what would be many trips to Home Depot. There we bought a small window A/C, an inexpensive pre-hung interior door, some 2x4s and a number of 1/2- and 3/4-inch 4x8 reflective exterior insulation panels. And duct tape. Lots of duct tape.

With an active vent louver from Amazon.com and a box fan and a Sawzall reciprocating saw from the shop, we set about modifying the CONEX box. First, we removed the existing vent from the rear of the unit, then we expanded its hole using a metal cutting blade on the Sawzall. Though the steel is 1/4-inch thick, the reciprocating saw had little difficulty cutting though it. Once the vent hole was expanded, we cut another hole below it for the air conditioner. Bracing it with wood on the inside, we installed the A/C, making sure that the intakes were reaching the outside.

The vent hole we started with was larger than our active went louver, so we had to make a 2x2 wooden plate to cover the gaps. Once installed, and tested with a fan, the louvers popped right open like designed. Hooked up to a timer, the ventilation fans will come on from 10 pm to 8 am, automatically opening the louvers and venting the mouse room of any built up ammonia for 8 hours. The louvers will close when the fans turn off and the A/C runs, from 8 am to 10 pm.

Whether you're breeding 100 mice or 10,000, setting up your breeding facility correctly at the beginning can prevent a lot of problems and heartbreak down the road.

If you can think of a problem, it has happened to someone before, in many cases with disastrous consequences. No one wants to come home from vacation to find that your rodents are floating down the hallway and you've made the 6 o'clock news.

First, you need to determine your needs, as this will set the size of the breeder colony you need and the space and caging required. We've already determined that we will need to produce at least 8,000 mice in a 12-month period. A mouse's reproductive cycle is roughly 20 days, and then they are immediately ready to breed again. We will need at least 1000 litters in 12 months. Rounding up to 30 days between litters, we need to produce 84 litters per month to reach that number, or in plain numerical terms 84 producing females.

The number of males required will be set by the total number of mice each cage will support. For our cages we'll be using one male for every three females in each cage, so we will need at least 28 males. Larger tubs, such as bus tubs, usually support larger groupings of between six and eight mice. In a perfect world we would need 112 mice total to keep our colony fed for a year, along with caging, food and water, and other basics.

However...

Because mice are horrible at math, and nature is unpredictable...

We will base our first mouse colony on having 200 mice, in 50 cages. That will provide for a backup in case of slow production, cycling of new and retired breeders, and insurance against accidental losses. Hopefully it will provide a small backstock of over-production and allow for rapid expansion when the time comes.

Housing 200 mice is something you don't want to do in your house, or worse, your apartment. The risks of cross contamination are simply too great. In a best case scenario all animals, mice included, should be sited in a separate outbuilding, ideally one that can be decontaminated if not sterilized. While people have been using wooden buildings to breed mice for years, if you're starting from scratch there are other better options to consider.

Many breeders use steel sheds, others use custom metal buildings. We chose a 20-foot steel CONEX shipping container. With only a wooden floor that can be removed and replaced as needed, it's almost the perfect solution. Almost.

With a projected 200 kingsnake cages to start with, securing the food source is probably the most important first step in my business plan. Before I even began to hunt for my breeder snakes, I wanted to have a primary and secondary food source in place.

Kingsnakes and milk snakes are ravenous feeders that will eat a variety of prey items, from rodents to reptiles, so that makes it relatively easy to find a food source. Availability, price and delivery can make this a costly proposition, however, especially on a commercial scale.

When I started as a hobbyist, finding a feeder mouse or two wasn't difficult, but finding enough to feed 20 or more animals on a regular basis was problematic. To feed a collection of size you invariably had to start your own mouse colony.

Today, a hobbyist or breeder can choose from a variety of sources, from individually-wrapped frozen feeders at the chain pet stores Petco and PetSmart, or bulk frozen feeders from a local pet shop. Frozen feeders are almost always available in bulk at the many reptile expos that occur across the country every year as well, supplied by the dozens of local breeders. And feeder mice are also available in uncounted places on the internet, from massive breeders like RodentPro, Mice Direct, and Big Cheese Rodents, to smaller local breeders advertising in kingsnake.com's classifieds. Frozen feeder mice are even available on Amazon.com!

If you want to save yourself space, convenience, labor, smell, and a variety of other issues, hazards, and problems, buying frozen feeder mice is really your best option.

If, on the other hand, you plan on starting and building a massive colony of breeder snakes as we are, the costs of buying frozen feeders can be daunting. With an estimated 200 colubrid snakes consuming a minimum of 1 mouse a week, 40 weeks a year, we will need to have on hand 8,000 feeder mice over a year's time. So in our case, our best option is to start our own mouse colony.

Reptile and amphibian hobbyists, breeders, academics, researchers, and zookeepers from around the globe are converging on the Astor Crown Plaza in New Orleans, Louisiana, this week for the 36th International Herp Symposium.

Starting with an icebreaker Wednesday night, followed by three days of presentations on herpetology, herpetoculture, and reptile veterinary medicine, the event also includes swamp tours in an airboat, a banquet and keynbote by Australian herpetologist John Cann, a silent auction, and more. Additionally, all attendees are invited to free admission to the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium in New Orleans.

While the call of Bourbon Street may be tough to ignore, there will be dozens of cool reptile and amphibian presentations over the next few days to keep herpers out of the bars, at least during the day. Some of the world's leading herpetologists, herpetoculturists, veterinarians, and more are scheduled to present at this year's event, guaranteeing something for every herper's interests. For a schedule of the IHS presentations, check out the IHS website.

I will be giving a presentation on reptile and amphibian laws on Friday at 4:45pm. My 30 minute presentation, titled “Reptile Laws: The role of NRAAC and NGOs in the Reptile & Amphibian Regulatory Process,” will be a quick overview of the NRAAC organization, and other organizations, and how they are involved in the creation of laws and regulations at the federal, state, and international levels. It will also discuss the upcoming NRAAC Reptile & Amphibian Law Symposium in Washington D.C. in November.

For more information on the NRAAC Reptile & Amphibian Law Symposium please visit the NRAAC website.