Around 9pm yesterday we lost all power due to the Hurricane and I needed to do something so I didn't loose an entire clutch of eggs (9 days into the incubation!) and this tutorial is geared toward those who don't own a generator or 72hr heat packs. I was able to use what most people have in their homes already, flashlights!!
Time is of the essence so as soon as the power goes out grab the biggest flashlights you have. LED ones don't work well, go for the ones with actual big bulbs on them. This is the assortment I used, there's two LEDs that worked ok but the bigger ones put out a lot more heat.
If you can't fit them in your current incubator stuff all your eggs into a cooler like the styrofoam one I used, eggs on one side and flashlights on the other. After a few hours the big silver one got actually HOT to the touch so make sure theyre not actually on the eggs. I also wrapped the whole cooler with two blankets for even extra thermal protection and moved it downstairs into the living room which was the warmest place in the house.
Keep checking and make sure none of the flashlights smell weird and aren't leaking battery acid because that can happen especially with these temps
This kept all the eggs at a nice and toasty 95-99 degrees and they never dropped below 90. Not exactly ideal but better than the 65f the rest of the house was.
(I think one egg got fried from touching the flashlight though I think it was infertile to begin with, BUT make sure there's a couple inches between the lights and your eggs!!)
So just closely monitor them and hopefully this saves a few peeps from no power.
Power came back on about an hour ago and I candled a few of the eggs, NO BLOOD RINGS!! The ones I checked are still alive with healthy blood vessels and look like they even grew considerably so they weren't that stunted from this incident! This whole thing was nerve wracking but it's over now and I hope my experience helps some people.
Time is of the essence so as soon as the power goes out grab the biggest flashlights you have. LED ones don't work well, go for the ones with actual big bulbs on them. This is the assortment I used, there's two LEDs that worked ok but the bigger ones put out a lot more heat.
If you can't fit them in your current incubator stuff all your eggs into a cooler like the styrofoam one I used, eggs on one side and flashlights on the other. After a few hours the big silver one got actually HOT to the touch so make sure theyre not actually on the eggs. I also wrapped the whole cooler with two blankets for even extra thermal protection and moved it downstairs into the living room which was the warmest place in the house.
Keep checking and make sure none of the flashlights smell weird and aren't leaking battery acid because that can happen especially with these temps
This kept all the eggs at a nice and toasty 95-99 degrees and they never dropped below 90. Not exactly ideal but better than the 65f the rest of the house was.
(I think one egg got fried from touching the flashlight though I think it was infertile to begin with, BUT make sure there's a couple inches between the lights and your eggs!!)
So just closely monitor them and hopefully this saves a few peeps from no power.
Power came back on about an hour ago and I candled a few of the eggs, NO BLOOD RINGS!! The ones I checked are still alive with healthy blood vessels and look like they even grew considerably so they weren't that stunted from this incident! This whole thing was nerve wracking but it's over now and I hope my experience helps some people.
