Sponsored Post I'm incubating - what do I do if the power goes out?

[FlomatonsFlocks]

Wonderful thread! Thank you all so much! Within the first 24 hours of incubation, our electricity went out due to a storm. It was down between 2-5 hours (idk bc I was asleep for part of it), but my husband said the electric was on when he left for work-so there's my math.

Anyone ever have this happen? How good was the hatch rate? The eggs were given to us for free and they're many different breeds so I turned it on asap and am hoping for the best! 18 days to go! 41 eggs.

 

[cmom]

I wouldn't worry as it was only 24 hrs. I lost power before at 2 weeks. Luckily I didn't have the cabinet filled so I put the eggs that were in the cabinet incubator and put them into my styrofoam incubators and hooked up a jump start battery pack. It wouldn't run the turners but did maintain the heat. It was quite chilly out. I live in Florida but during the winter we can have some quite chilly days and that is when the power went out so I covered the incubator with a towel too.

 

[FlomatonsFlocks]

I wouldn't worry as it was only 24 hrs. I lost power before at 2 weeks. Luckily I didn't have the cabinet filled so I put the eggs that were in the cabinet incubator and put them into my styrofoam incubators and hooked up a jump start battery pack. It wouldn't run the turners but did maintain the heat. It was quite chilly out. I live in Florida but during the winter we can have some quite chilly days and that is when the power went out so I covered the incubator with a towel too.

I wouldn't worry as it was only 24 hrs. I lost power before at 2 weeks. Luckily I didn't have the cabinet filled so I put the eggs that were in the cabinet incubator and put them into my styrofoam incubators and hooked up a jump start battery pack. It wouldn't run the turners but did maintain the heat. It was quite chilly out. I live in Florida but during the winter we can have some quite chilly days and that is when the power went out so I covered the incubator with a towel too.

Thank you so much! I saw growth on a few of them so there is hope! That last cooler on the bottom photo, it looks like a cooler that had meat in it my mom mailed to me. I think I could make a bator out of that. Never made one before. How did you make yours?

 

[cmom]

They are from Omaha steaks.

 

[FlomatonsFlocks]

Wonderful thread! Thank you all so much! Within the first 24 hours of incubation, our electricity went out due to a storm. It was down between 2-5 hours (idk bc I was asleep for part of it), but my husband said the electric was on when he left for work-so there's my math.

Anyone ever have this happen? How good was the hatch rate? The eggs were given to us for free and they're many different breeds so I turned it on asap and am hoping for the best! 18 days to go! 41 eggs.

UPDATE DAY 14... 28 out of 41 eggs are growing well! There is hope people!

UPDATE DAY 19... 4 Pips so far!

 

[Rinda]

Just curious - what does putting them in the refrigerator do? Do you take them out again? I'm still new to chickens so...

The

Just curious - what does putting them in the refrigerator do? Do you take them out again? I'm still new to chickens so...

It destroys the protective layer around the egg, just like rinsing it with water does, and if the refrigerator is set below 5 degrees C it can kill the embryo.

 

[jo777]

I know this is resurrecting an old thread but.. I just had this happen to me on day3. 29 eggs in, and on day 3 - power out for likely 8, maybe 10 hrs (I was at work, so not sure when it went out!) The room the incubators are is kept about 75-77, it was 86 inside when it came back on (90+ outside) and the eggs were room temp. I found the Brinsea article quoted here and obviously started the worry-hamster spinning the wheel.. The eggs cooled to the worst temp zone according to this article, at the worst time in development! They would have fared better cooling down to a low temp than hanging at 86 for who knows how long. I will be candling about day 7, but am concerned I'll have malformations or losses.. thoughts? Anyone go through this or have thoughts about what may end up happening? First time hatching.

 

[cmom]

Surprisingly eggs can take some cool and hotter temperatures for a time. I have had some incidents in the past and one time I thought I had probably lost a hatch but to my surprise I candled and saw some movement in some eggs. I was about 2 weeks into incubation when I lost power. I lost power during a winter night and when I checked the incubator the temperature was 78. I put the incubator on a power supply (battery with an inverter) and got the temperature back up and to my surprise I still had a very good hatch. I candled and saw movement so I knew some may survive.

 

[cmom]

I think I posted before about this on this thread. Since you are barely into your incubation you are probably going to be ok. On day 7 you may or may not see any movement. I would also candle day 10 and maybe day 14. You will definitely know by then if they are developing. I used to candle more often but now I only candle on day 18 or 19 when I put the eggs in the hatchers. If they quit before that or are infertile, it doesn't matter what you do because they're not going to hatch.

 

[jo777]

I think I posted before about this on this thread. Since you are barely into your incubation you are probably going to be ok. On day 7 you may or may not see any movement. I would also candle day 10 and maybe day 14. You will definitely know by then if they are developing. I used to candle more often but now I only candle on day 18 or 19 when I put the eggs in the hatchers. If they quit before that or are infertile, it doesn't matter what you do because they're not going to hatch.

Thanks- I may wait till day 10- the only reason I'm candling early is checking air cell development- I'm running dry, since my humidity in the room is so high my incubator RH% is about 32-40%. Just making sure I'm losing enough water, but not too much too fast. I also weighed some eggs on my gram scale- a good mix of all the eggs, so I can make sure I've got a good mark on them. I will bring up the RH at lockdown, but prior to that- so long as the humidity stays up there- I'm hoping it's good to go.

I was doing fairly ok until I read that article and just noted the development stage & danger zone of cooling.. it has me concerned about the outcomes. Ah well, running with it as it is!

On top of that- I had extra eggs- and just got my styro DIY made and dialed in.. so 6 eggs (2 cracked & repaired) are going into that one, just as an experiment.. all very inexpensive, nothing rare.