HELP!! Power went out!!

[CricketR4]

My power went out for a few hours today, from about 10am till 2pm. I have 15 duck eggs in an incubator, am I going to lose them, or will they be ok? I left the bator closed while the power was out, hoping to contain as much warmth as possible, but the temp still dropped to around 60-70 in there.

 

[Amiga]

I think you may be okay. Perhaps you can check in at the Thread Formerly Known as Hatch Day is Today.

 

[Dwen]

I had some eggs once that went with me on a five hour car ride and still hatched, so there's a good chance they'll be alright.

 

[LaynaDon95]

They should be fine. My duck once abandoned her nest for one night. (my fault. long story) and it was autumn. They were stone cold by morning. I was devastated. I candled them and they were congealed inside. I knew that I had killed them. But they hatched fine. No worries. Your babies should be fine.

 

[CricketR4]

I had some eggs once that went with me on a five hour car ride and still hatched, so there's a good chance they'll be alright.

Thank you for that ray of hope! This is my first time hatching duck eggs, so I'm a bit nervy!

 

[Amiga]

From anything I have read here, it takes nerves of steel to hatch these eggs. Prayers for you all.

 

[erinszoo]

I read on one of the hatchery sites that they sometimes partially incubate eggs for some reason and then give/sell them to someone to complete the hatch. They said one time they had the eggs out of the incubator and boxed up ready to be picked up but they never got picked up and were sitting out at room temp for something like eight hours ... and they still said they had an 80% hatch rate from them. I would think you have a good chance with them still. Our power was out last night too and we ended up putting hot water bottles in our brooders to keep our turkey poults warm. It worked great but I was thankful I hadn't started another incubation yet. I could see us sleeping with them or something to keep them warm ... which would be more like not sleeping but laying there holding the eggs all night while reading by flashlight or something.