Eggs in Incubator, Electric Co planned power outage! HELP!

[toto65]

I just found out that our electric company has a planned power outage scheduled for this Saturday at midnight until 6am. I have an incubator FULL of turkey eggs. Some will be going into lockdown the next day and I just set 22 last night. What can I do to keep them warm? In northern VT the temperatures till get down in the 20's at night. I have a backup heater for the house which should keep temps around 65 to 70 but no power to the bator for that long worries me. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[paddock36]

I'm guessing you don't have a generator for backup power. How about purchasing a power inverter for you vehicle that you could plug the incubator in. I don't know how much they cost but it's just an idea.

 

[muddyhorse]

can you move the incubator to some one else's house. or the power company 's office.

 

[Emmalion]

Quote:

I vote for a friends house. But call the power co and tell them you need to use their office

 

[paddock36]

x 2

 

[BrattishTaz]

Do you have room for a brick or two in the incubator? Put them in a couple of days days ahead of time so they come up to temperature. Bricks hold heat very well and take quite a while to cool (just make sure the temperature does not rise too much after the bricks heat). Remember air mass cools (and heats) faster than solid mass.

Stones would work if you don't have room for bricks.

 

[call ducks]

First don't panic.


Do you have wool blankets (you know the itchy ones that are soo warm but annoying to have on the bed)?

What size is your incubator?

I would not worry about them that much. I would place a wool blanket over the incubator. I talked to an owner of a hatchery, he said eggs produce a bit of heat not a lot but with a blanket or two around the incubatorI would not worry about it.

 

[sben451]

Check out a power inverter. You hook it to a battery (car battery, tractor battery, etc.) and it converts DC power to AC power. My son has respiratory equipment and we've used the inverter hooked to a battery to keep his ventilator going during a power outage (we do now have a standby generator).

 

[toto65]

No generator and sadly the power companys office is about 50 miles away so that is not an option! I have 2 styrofoam still air incubators, one with a turner and one without for hatching. I think I can move the one with turner into the room with the heater and try the blanket route, the hatching one I have room in it for heated stones or a hot water bottle.
Thanks for all the great suggestions, keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[deerman]

small propane heaters (sold at WalMart) try to keep a small room extra warm, power invert for you car would need to be the large one, check watts on incubator, match that if you get one