Bad weather coming in...what if...

[E.M. Silkies]

We have some nasty weather coming in where I live. I just put eggs in the bator yesterday. What do I do if the power goes out? I would like to go ahead and have a backup plan in case we lose power. Any suggestions? I'm using a hova bator 1602. My mind is going blank.

 

[farmgirlie1031]

Put a blanket over the 'bator to hold in the heat and hopefully the power won't be out too long. It has happened to me twice. One time it lowered the hatch rate and the other time they were due to hatch the next day but they got too cold as the power was off so long that they all died in the egg

At least using the blanket to hold the heat in gives them a better chance. Just be sure to remove the blanket once the power is back on. Hope you don't loose power.

 

[minihorse927]

The two best things to do if you can afford one or the other is to buy a small generator or go get a power inverter ($20 for a small one, sometimes cheaper) and just make sure your car has enough gas in it to start it every once in a while when the battery voltage starts to drop. If you have a woodstove I have set the incubator next to the stove and draped them in blankets and they tend to hold enough heat in the keep the eggs alive. Actually doing this you have to watch just how close to the stove they are because I did cook some one time doing it this way cause I didn't think about the stove getting them to hot.

 

[bjash]

Small, portable generators would work great for supplying power to bators.

Also, for about $50 you can invest in a battery backup (UPS) that are sold for computer use (but it would work great for a bator) and would probably last 3-5 times longer than stated for your computer (since the light most likely draws a fraction of what your computer would draw for power).