I have OEGB, Campine and White leghorn eggs 14 days in--ELECTRICITY out!! We are having really bad weather and they have no idea how long it will be out!!! I have used spotlight and temp is falling faster than expected! How long can it stay low?? What can I do? Put the spotlight in couple different spots and it seems to raise temp some-but the battery isn't going to hold much longer! Any advice please!! We can't" lose the babies - thank YOU!!
If they cool down to room T for one night they will still have a chance to make it. Cover up the bator but make sure they can still breahe. Other than finding a way to heat them, hope the power comes on. If you don't have many eggs, you can try keeping them next to your skin and you bundle up yourself so you over heat and keep them warm.
Wrap that incubator in blankets..... I'm not sure how long they can survive - I've heard of up to 10 hour outages, but not sure how cold it got. If you have a fire place or something put it near that...... get it out of the way of air movement and any breeze or anything like that - that would cool it down. GOOD LUCK - I'm hoping for a real short outage...
Do you have a friend that has electricity that you could drive your incubator to???? That would be an option if you have no others.
I don't know much about incubators, I let my chickens sit on the eggs, but would a hot water bottle or warmed up brick (heated in a fire) work to keep the heat going?
Don't give up hope. I had a hen give up setting on 2 eggs on the 18th day--I thought at first she was taking her potty break. I looked out later that afternoon and she was still running around in the yard. No amount of persuasion could coax her back to the nest. I grabbed the cold eggs, put them in my shirt and called DH to pick up an incubator on his way home. The eggs hatched right on schedule.
Thank you so much for the ideas and responses. The power has come back on and the temp is back up in the bator. I was worried when the temp started dropping as fast as it did. The spotlight helped keep the temp up and it never got lower than 96 so I hope all is ok in there. That line of storms is bad.
Great! The power is back on! Good luck! I doubt the chicks got even that cold if it only made it down to 96F. By day 14 they are starting to make a bit of their own heat too. Hope for no more outages!
If it happens again, some genius member organized her chicks around a candle - made the cutest darned candle ring I've ever seen...and it worked