Hurricane evacuation, what to do with incubator?

[Impatient]

So living on the coast of GA, I've been paying attention to hurricane Irma and am thinking of evacuating. As if loading a handful of cats, two dogs and a chick wasn't bad enough, I have no idea what to do with my incubator that's a week in. I definitely won't leave it because there will probably be long power outages, so now I'm trying to figure out how to keep it warm for a long drive of 6-8hrs. Current though is wrap in towels and get some of those hand warmer packs to stick around the sides. Other thought is buying an outlet adapter for my car so I can plug it in in the car, but I worry that will completely drain my car battery. Open to suggestions because I've never been in this situation before.

 

[tastyacres]

I had the power go out for 8hours when I was hatching our eggs... I heated up blankets and stuck a layer of insulation over the incubator... 9-days later I had 18chicks hatch from 25eggs.

 

[theuglychick]

How far are you driving?

Hens will leave the eggs for a few hours a day sometimes to feed, dust bath, get water, etc and will return to sometimes cold eggs and still have an excellent hatch, so you might be good with just packing them up and going.

On the other note, I had to make a red eye drive from Atlanta to Baton Rouge one night before the invention of energy drinks. I bought a wall adapter for the cigarette lighter plug and plugged a 12-cup coffee pot up and drove all the way back to BR, thoroughly caffeinated, never losing any battery life in the van I was driving.

I think you might be good either way. But keep Mort safe!

 

[Impatient]

How far are you driving?

I think you might be good either way. But keep Mort safe!

Bout 6-8hrs, maybe more depending on traffic. I stayed for hurricane Matthew, but lost power for a week and a half and neither eggs nor Mort would do well with that. My current plan is to board up my windows, get any and all washing done, run every errand I can think of, stockpile water and food, make plans for evacuating and then watch the weather. Depending on if there's any affordable gas generators, may pick one up for if I decide to bunker down and stay, I know the incubator and brooder will have power.

 

[theuglychick]

Hmm, yea, if you're going that far I'd say you'd probably need a power source for the drive to keep the eggs warm. It'll be hard to monitor and maintain temp with blankets and heat packs for 8 hours.

These storms are the worst! I'm hoping it's miraculously veers off into the Atlantic.

 

[SOHC-FTW]

Aslong as you are driving your alternator will keep the battery charged thats its job.

 

[scottcaddy]

Look at your incubator paperwork somewhere it should list power draw, then make sure the power supply you get for the car is big enough with about 10% to spare.
Good luck, I really do hope that you don't loose power!
Scott

 

[Impatient]

Well the good news is hurricane Irma shifted away from my location, so not evacuating, but may still lose power. However, I have the incubator in a safe location with a generator at a friends house for the duration of the tropical storm that's still hitting us. Fingers crossed!!

 

[Storybook Farm]

Yay! I was going to write (for future readers) that those car inverters really do the job. I used to run my hair dryer off of ours (with car running) when camping. I would think it would run a table top incubator just fine.