This is long, but need to vent, and who better with than fellow hatchers?
First time I'm trying separate hatch dates in same incubator. Christmas and NYD. About 20 eggs for each hatch date. These are 99% Bielefelders, and 1% Black Showgirl Silkie x Bielefelder cross.
1:30am Christmas Eve get a call @ work that power is out @ home. Took a minute for me to absorb the consequences of that, oh yeah, THE BATOR!!! Half my eggs (about 20) are 1 1/2 days from hatching and the bator shuts down (yes, I know, get a battery backup, but what to do NOW?). I "panicked", but my loved one "prayed."
How does one tell their boss they need to go home, because their Bator needs to get plugged in somewhere? Somehow, the words came, and off I was to save the chickies, or so I thought.....
That job I was on happened to be nearly an our away from home, the clock was ticking, tickING, TICKING.. louder and LOUDER as I drove home as fast as I could in the darkness amidst wind-ae-dos, debris, fallen trees...must save the CHICKIES!!!
Gathering all my intellect, decided to pass through our main town before heading out home, just to be sure there's power THERE in which I could plug the bator into...TOTAL BLACKOUT. Surely the fire department would be open, and since they save kitties in trees surely, they'll plug in my Bator, right? Not even the fire department was open! My intellect was failing me, losing hope.......but my hopes were raised as I started to drive down our road and noticed a bunch of lights on by our house, ALOT of lights. What the??? Oh My Goodness! We were in a total blackout, but because of motion sensor lights surrounding the property ,and high winds,. well, you can figure it out. Kind of funny now
Upon entering home, was awed by the effort put into keeping my Bator warm by my loved ones....they wrapped it up in a, get this, "duck down" comforter leaving a little hole for air... God Bless Them!
Well, I missed work for what? What could I do? Was prayer going to be enough? Have I done all that I can do? Should I bring the bator to work? Probably a liability issue there. Hmmm. Better get some sleep, but how, I was jacked up on coffee from work? I laid down for about an hour, tossing a bit, and then popped out of bed. Call Walmart! Maybe I could plug my bator there if they have power, right? Believe it or not, they DID have power and WERE going to let me plug it into the "motorized wheelchair" area, but only for 1 or 2hrs due to liability issues. I was going to go, but thought, am I crazy? What if they start hatching, and what if they DON'T start hatching and 2hrs is up? Then what? Maybe having power to the bator, then no power, then power, etc... is worse for the little chickies? I decided not to go... hours passed, still no power, no restoration update either, we're screwed, the chickies going to die. The phones running out of juice. I'm defeated. I'm sad. The fully formed chickies are going to wither away in their shells. Why God?
Two+ hours of tossing and turning passed by....I sprung out of bed, and thought. "MC'DONALDS"!! I called, they were open! I bundled up the bator and threw by fuzzy bathrobe ontop of it, and hauled off to McDonald's on an empty tank of gas. The egg turner had been out of the Bator due to lockdown. The eggs were rolling around in the bator as I drove. I placed a small towel inside to keep the rolling to a minimum, but still. On the way to McDonalds stopped at a gas station (mind you , all these places were in a different county-not my county which was in a blackout)
.
At the gas station I explained my situation....just so happens the manager there was getting off work to go clean his church just down the street. He offered to plug the Bator in there. At first sounded like a good idea, but realized it wasn't practical. Off I headed to McDonalds!!
Amazingly no one asked me what I was carrying into McDonalds. They just held the door open for me. Not sure if I had cords hanging out or what. I plugged everything up, pulled out my laptop to keep track of any power restoration notices, etc.....
3 hours later, still no power updates....getting tired....got a hotel room. Plugged bator in - heard numerous cheepings, chicks not allowed in hotel - everything okay as long as they're not hatched. Went home. Power was on. Ahhh!
Thank God the hotel refunded my $'s - went back for Bator, plugged in, went to sleep. Total amt of time Bator off - 5hrs.
17/20 made it! The ones that didn't were shipped eggs. That all occurred about 1 week before my NYD hatch.
I wasn't paying attention, didn't clean out the hatching droppings goop (didn't lay down paper towel), so several days later, pretty bad smell from bator and it wasn't from a bad egg. I couldn't take it anymore, and took all the eggs out today, cleaned out the tray, put everything back together. Oh well. I'm pooped. Would be very surprised if any NYD hatch, and am NOT opening up any eggs to see what happened, if they don't hatch. It's too much. I'm sure a few out there can relate to this. It is cathartic to write. Thank You
First time I'm trying separate hatch dates in same incubator. Christmas and NYD. About 20 eggs for each hatch date. These are 99% Bielefelders, and 1% Black Showgirl Silkie x Bielefelder cross.
1:30am Christmas Eve get a call @ work that power is out @ home. Took a minute for me to absorb the consequences of that, oh yeah, THE BATOR!!! Half my eggs (about 20) are 1 1/2 days from hatching and the bator shuts down (yes, I know, get a battery backup, but what to do NOW?). I "panicked", but my loved one "prayed."
How does one tell their boss they need to go home, because their Bator needs to get plugged in somewhere? Somehow, the words came, and off I was to save the chickies, or so I thought.....
That job I was on happened to be nearly an our away from home, the clock was ticking, tickING, TICKING.. louder and LOUDER as I drove home as fast as I could in the darkness amidst wind-ae-dos, debris, fallen trees...must save the CHICKIES!!!
Gathering all my intellect, decided to pass through our main town before heading out home, just to be sure there's power THERE in which I could plug the bator into...TOTAL BLACKOUT. Surely the fire department would be open, and since they save kitties in trees surely, they'll plug in my Bator, right? Not even the fire department was open! My intellect was failing me, losing hope.......but my hopes were raised as I started to drive down our road and noticed a bunch of lights on by our house, ALOT of lights. What the??? Oh My Goodness! We were in a total blackout, but because of motion sensor lights surrounding the property ,and high winds,. well, you can figure it out. Kind of funny now
Upon entering home, was awed by the effort put into keeping my Bator warm by my loved ones....they wrapped it up in a, get this, "duck down" comforter leaving a little hole for air... God Bless Them!
Well, I missed work for what? What could I do? Was prayer going to be enough? Have I done all that I can do? Should I bring the bator to work? Probably a liability issue there. Hmmm. Better get some sleep, but how, I was jacked up on coffee from work? I laid down for about an hour, tossing a bit, and then popped out of bed. Call Walmart! Maybe I could plug my bator there if they have power, right? Believe it or not, they DID have power and WERE going to let me plug it into the "motorized wheelchair" area, but only for 1 or 2hrs due to liability issues. I was going to go, but thought, am I crazy? What if they start hatching, and what if they DON'T start hatching and 2hrs is up? Then what? Maybe having power to the bator, then no power, then power, etc... is worse for the little chickies? I decided not to go... hours passed, still no power, no restoration update either, we're screwed, the chickies going to die. The phones running out of juice. I'm defeated. I'm sad. The fully formed chickies are going to wither away in their shells. Why God?
Two+ hours of tossing and turning passed by....I sprung out of bed, and thought. "MC'DONALDS"!! I called, they were open! I bundled up the bator and threw by fuzzy bathrobe ontop of it, and hauled off to McDonald's on an empty tank of gas. The egg turner had been out of the Bator due to lockdown. The eggs were rolling around in the bator as I drove. I placed a small towel inside to keep the rolling to a minimum, but still. On the way to McDonalds stopped at a gas station (mind you , all these places were in a different county-not my county which was in a blackout)
.
At the gas station I explained my situation....just so happens the manager there was getting off work to go clean his church just down the street. He offered to plug the Bator in there. At first sounded like a good idea, but realized it wasn't practical. Off I headed to McDonalds!!
Amazingly no one asked me what I was carrying into McDonalds. They just held the door open for me. Not sure if I had cords hanging out or what. I plugged everything up, pulled out my laptop to keep track of any power restoration notices, etc.....
3 hours later, still no power updates....getting tired....got a hotel room. Plugged bator in - heard numerous cheepings, chicks not allowed in hotel - everything okay as long as they're not hatched. Went home. Power was on. Ahhh!
Thank God the hotel refunded my $'s - went back for Bator, plugged in, went to sleep. Total amt of time Bator off - 5hrs.
17/20 made it! The ones that didn't were shipped eggs. That all occurred about 1 week before my NYD hatch.
I wasn't paying attention, didn't clean out the hatching droppings goop (didn't lay down paper towel), so several days later, pretty bad smell from bator and it wasn't from a bad egg. I couldn't take it anymore, and took all the eggs out today, cleaned out the tray, put everything back together. Oh well. I'm pooped. Would be very surprised if any NYD hatch, and am NOT opening up any eggs to see what happened, if they don't hatch. It's too much. I'm sure a few out there can relate to this. It is cathartic to write. Thank You
