When I purchased some highly coveted eggs a little over 2 weeks ago, I had completely forgotten that we would be on a week's beach vacation during the hatching time. However, not to be denied either the eggs or the vacation, we loaded up our wonderful Rcom Suro King incubator this morning at 4:30 am and headed out on our 4 hours drive to Cape San Blas, Fl.
Also loaded is a plastic rubbermaid tub to act as a brooder, a clamp on light with a 75 watt bulb for heat, a small baggie of chick starter and a roll of paper towels.
I thought about asking the dog sitter to tend the hatch for me, BUT....these are lavender silkies eggs from Shagbarksilkies and lav/porcelain eggs from April - Broody's Bordello. So you can imagine that I wasn't willing to risk a novice tending to my hatch.
But we must digress to yesterday evening when a tornado came thundering through our county with high winds, hail and torrential rains. There were some flickers of the power, but by the time I hit the sack at 11:00 pm, the worst was over and all was well. My DD decided to come spend the night at our house so she would be there when we left very early in the morning. At midnight, she gently woke me with , "MOM....THE INCUBATOR IS MAKING A NOISE!!!!" I flew out of the bed to find it at normal temp and humidity but beeping...indicating that the power had been interrupted at some point after I went to sleep. So again...all is well.
At 4:00 am the alarm jangled me to my feet and I put on the coffee and began packing the car as DH and DD took a leisurely shower and got all ready for the trip. Really?? How about a little help guys...
At 4:30 everything was packed except the incubator. I had purchased a converter that plugs into my cigarette lighter (do they still call them that??) There was a special flat place on a folded down back seat for it. My DD and I went in to pick it up together because it has the attached humidity pump plus turning cradle and it takes 2 people to pick all of that up.
To my horror, the incubator was off and the temp was at 78 degrees. OMG!! It must have gone off sometimes at 12:30 am and 4:00 am. I so hoping it was only for an hour or so...but time will tell I guess.
With not much hope for them, we went ahead and loaded them up, plugged them in and took off. They were back up to temp within 4 minutes and at this moment are safely turning in their cradle in our lovely vacation home paradise. The trip took about 4 1/2 hours and the bator stayed absolutely rock steady with temp and humidity the entire trip.
This is day 16 for these eggs, and we are here for an entire week, so we hope to have a successful hatch by the time we leave next Saturday. I'll continue to post updates and pics as we go along. Below is a pic of the bator in the backseat.
Also loaded is a plastic rubbermaid tub to act as a brooder, a clamp on light with a 75 watt bulb for heat, a small baggie of chick starter and a roll of paper towels.
I thought about asking the dog sitter to tend the hatch for me, BUT....these are lavender silkies eggs from Shagbarksilkies and lav/porcelain eggs from April - Broody's Bordello. So you can imagine that I wasn't willing to risk a novice tending to my hatch.
But we must digress to yesterday evening when a tornado came thundering through our county with high winds, hail and torrential rains. There were some flickers of the power, but by the time I hit the sack at 11:00 pm, the worst was over and all was well. My DD decided to come spend the night at our house so she would be there when we left very early in the morning. At midnight, she gently woke me with , "MOM....THE INCUBATOR IS MAKING A NOISE!!!!" I flew out of the bed to find it at normal temp and humidity but beeping...indicating that the power had been interrupted at some point after I went to sleep. So again...all is well.
At 4:00 am the alarm jangled me to my feet and I put on the coffee and began packing the car as DH and DD took a leisurely shower and got all ready for the trip. Really?? How about a little help guys...
At 4:30 everything was packed except the incubator. I had purchased a converter that plugs into my cigarette lighter (do they still call them that??) There was a special flat place on a folded down back seat for it. My DD and I went in to pick it up together because it has the attached humidity pump plus turning cradle and it takes 2 people to pick all of that up.
To my horror, the incubator was off and the temp was at 78 degrees. OMG!! It must have gone off sometimes at 12:30 am and 4:00 am. I so hoping it was only for an hour or so...but time will tell I guess.
With not much hope for them, we went ahead and loaded them up, plugged them in and took off. They were back up to temp within 4 minutes and at this moment are safely turning in their cradle in our lovely vacation home paradise. The trip took about 4 1/2 hours and the bator stayed absolutely rock steady with temp and humidity the entire trip.
This is day 16 for these eggs, and we are here for an entire week, so we hope to have a successful hatch by the time we leave next Saturday. I'll continue to post updates and pics as we go along. Below is a pic of the bator in the backseat.
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