"Incubator run on Car battery?"

I have a question..... I have my incubator full of eggs right now that are due to hatch monday.... Here's the deal, I planned on getting are house painted, thought the painters would be afew more weeks but, surprise they said there showing up this monday, & to paint they have to shut off the power to are house to paint around the Power line comming into the house...so. Here's my question. My incubator is the (Little Giant 9200) with the egg turner. If I bought a Car battery inverter to run my incubator for 1-day would this work??? Anyone out there ever try this? Looks like I'll just have to do this anyway.

I've never had to try it, but I'll be interested in how it works.

DH is a painter and says you may want to tell them to do that area first and quickly, but he's curious as to why and how they are going to shut off the power? He's never heard of it and he does commercial and residential. Unless they shut it down at the pole, which is a job for the power company, the line to the house will still be "hot" and add no safety aspects.

Yeah, they called the Power CO. & there comming out to shut it off at the pole... Just for a few hours.

use a good heavy duty battery and it should be fine. make sure the inverter has enough capacity according to the power needs of your bator. if you have a bator that only needs say 100W then a decent battery will run it thru an inverter for 5-6 hrs no problems

If it is only for a "few" hours, I'd cover the incubator with a heavy blanket and leave it alone. A brooding hen will occasionally get off the eggs for few minutes to eat, drink, and poop, so a slight temperature drop shouldn't be horrible.

However,

I'd make DARN sure the power company guys and the painter crew know BABY LIVES DEPEND upon them being QUICK about their work. Of course this will require you to stand around giving everyone the Evil Mother Look until the power is back on, but if you have the time and don't have to leave the house...

Best part is: you can place the "blame" on your chicken experts at BYC. ("I'm not the bad guy. The chicken experts said you can do this is less than one hour...")

I might not be a true chicken expert, but I was a Public Works painter at Charleston Naval Shipyard (Charleston, SC) before BRAC closed the base and shipyard. It doesn't take five minutes to set up the ladder to paint that area after the power is off. The painters should already have the paint out and open with all the other equipment ready. Scaffolding can be set up NEAR the area and dragged into position in short order.

Zero excuses, my dear. Listen to zero excuses. The Public Works painter says so.

Car battery inverter should be fine, I moved mine day 20 once in the car an hours journey away as we were staying away for hatch week. No problems, got 16/20 from SHIPPED eggs. I'd be more concerned about the fumes to be honest. If you can hook them up to a battery and pop the whole thing out in a shed/in a car you'd be more safe?

This is temporary, right? If you need it for long time use, look into getting a "deep cycle" battery instead of a car battery. It will last longer.