Day 16: Adventures in Power Failure

Hello....I am in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Last night, we had one of the biggest snowstorms on record for our area in many years. I have 33 eggs in the 'bator (my very first hatch!) and the power went out last night around 11pm.

I have been on this forum reading for months, preparing for the arrival of these beloved chickens. My dad and mom are in Michigan, raising a small flock of organic laying hens, and they Fedexd me 36 eggs to go in the incubator they got me for christmas. I've been unbelieveably excited, and have taken great care in monitoring the temperature, humidity and turning of the eggs. So far, I only had to pull three that were obviously not developing.

Anyway, I knew that the first thing I needed to do was cover the incubator with warm blankets for insulation. By 4am, the power was still out and I was getting very worried. I wanted to check the temp, but I didn't dare remove the blankets and risk losing heat. Then I remembered the battery generator in my hubby's car.....you can jump a car with it, but you can also plug into it. It only had about a 40% charge, but it was better than nothing. The incubator started warming up, and I was very relieved.

Around 9am, I was trying to decide what to do. The power was still out, and I had no idea how long the battery would last. At 9:30, it started beeping, "low power" and the 'bator shut off. So I quickly packed them up in egg cartons, placed them back in the semi-warm incubator, wrapped the whole thing in a big, folded blanket and headed into town to the wine shop where I work (I was off today). It took about 25 minutes to get there with the roads in so-so shape. I set up the 'bator on the tasting bar and that is where they spent the day.

The power finally came back at 3pm and I drove to town and picked them up around 6pm (again, nervous about bringing them out in the cold).

I've been watching over them all night, wondering what kind of damage had been done. I finally decided to candle a few, if nothing else to prepare my kiddos for the worst. 7 out of the 7 that I candled all have moving babies! Unbelieveable.

Thank you to everyone for posting such wonderful advice....and now it's time for me to give some: DON'T scrap the hatch until you know for sure! These babies are impressively resilient.

Oh, happy day!

 

Cindy in CA -
It's great to finally be on here. There are so many wonderful, friendly people on here and I look forward to sharing chicken adventures.

Thanks for the warm welcome....

 

Thanks for all of the encouragement!

Keeping my fingers crossed....