"gambling" with fate to defend my eggs' life (he/she make it!!!!)

firstly, I would like to introduce my self, I'm a man who live in indonesia.
in this country, you will find yourself "dark" minimal 1 time a day, what is "dark"? the electricity goes down. because the country's electricity company didn't have enough power to fulfill people's electricity needs.

I just find BYC about 1 week ago and now trying for hatching my eggs by putting it into incubator I made 5 days ago. sad thing happen, power went down and I have to use candle in order to raise the temperature. I have to keep my incubator (and my house) not to get on fire from candle I use to provide heat as substitution of lamp.

sometime temp get on 39 degrees, I'm panic, I open window and let heat go away till reach 37 deg. sometime it went below 36 deg. what!! I'm busy on lighten more candle in order to get more heat. today is my first day incubating 3 eggs from my hen. I have 3 hens now, but only 1 is laying egg and she is laying only 3 eggs after 10 days. I got frustrated, why this happen, I always give her enough food and drink everyday.

and now, I'm sitting on chair, typing on my laptop with 20% battery and keeping my eggs on right temp and waiting for power to come so I can take some rest. for information, now is 20:46 at indonesia.

I don't know if my eggs can survive with this temp fluctuation (36-39deg). but I do hope they can. I plan to buy 6 duck eggs and 6 chicken eggs tomorrow to my incubator. be strong my eggs, defend yourself, maybe they just got unlucky because being laid in indonesia, a country that always run out of power... I hope you all survive and I will keep you all get best temp although I've to run up and down taking fire and candles for all of you

and best of luck to you! Since hens get off their eggs at least once a day, maybe it will work out for you.

We are hoping with you. In Farenheit, we hold around 99.5 deg. but incubation up to 103 deg is recommended by some depending on the type of the incubator. Some fluctuation is acceptable, but if your temperatures stay on the cool side, the hatch may take a little longer. Remember, the mama chicken gets off the nest to go eat/drink once a day or so.

Best success

That's a really creative way to make up for the loss of power! How long does the power stay off during the "dark" times? If it's not too long, you could make do by wrapping the incubator in blankets or something.

You need a solar powered incubator! Seriously though, Best of luck to you. I figured there was no way mine were going to hatch. (first time)... But last night I heard chirping, and so far today I have 2 chicks hatched.

Jason

and best of luck on your hatching experiment!
What kind of rooster do you have?

Also, are these young or older hens? That makes a difference on how many eggs they lay.

I had a week with small power outages everyday during my last incubation. We were having severe thunderstorms. I still had several of the eggs that were in the incubator hatch. Not as high of a hatch rate as I had hoped for but some of them still made it.

I am send good thoughts your way and welcome to BYC.

Deena

Sir,
fill your incubator with closed jars of water to moderate the temperatures--
it drastically limits fluctuations.
All luck to you.

Wow, I am in awe that you are trying this with all your challenges. Do you know what breed your chickens are? If they are young, or if they are not a good egg-laying breed, that would explain why you are not getting many eggs. If they are young, they may get better at it.

What is your weather like there? That will also affect laying, as will the length of daylight. As daylight gets longer, they will lay more. There are many reasons for poor laying.

If you want to raise chickens for food and income, you may be able to get help from an organization called Heifer International. They provide training and assistance (and sometimes livestock) for people who are seeking to improve their situation by raising livestock. Their website is www.heifer.org, and I'm pretty sure they already have some programs going in Indonesia. You might not qualify, but it might not hurt to look into it.

I agree about the water. Warm the water up to close to the temp in the incubator first, though, because it will absorb any additional heat and affect your temperature for a long time. However, once it is up to temp, it will help to regulate the temp during power outages.

Do you have a place where you can light a fire and heat rocks to put in the incubator? Or, if you can heat water to *above* the temp in your incubator, you can use it to raise the temp when your power is out. You can heat water in the sun, if it's daytime. If you have glass jars or black containers to keep the water in, it will heat very quickly in direct sunlight, especially if it is stored in small quantities.

Quote:
I have 2, 1 in cage because he is always "hit" all my chickens n ducks.

these one is a young chick. what's the difference?