Incubator and power outages

[comitdust]

I have threats for tornadoes and possible power outages where I live starting tonight. I have hundreds of dollars worth of eggs in the incubators . What can be done to keep them warm during power outages and no I do not have a generator.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some generators can run on car batteries. Check to see if yours can and do you need a conversion kit. That might tide you over for a short while. Of course you will need a way to recharge the batteries. Maybe your car?

This one is a lot trickier because you don’t want to cook your eggs. That can happen pretty easily. If you have a heat source, a water heater that still works, propane, whatever, heat water bottles or maybe bricks and trade them out in the incubator to keep the heat up. Not easy to achieve but maybe possible to pull off.

I’m sure you have way too many eggs for this one, but your body temperature is real close to incubation temperature. Some women have successfully incubated eggs in their bra. Maybe don’t think about that one too hard.

If you wrap blankets or something like that around the incubator you can reduce the heat loss, maybe give you some time to react.

It’s not an easy one. I wish you luck.

 

[Em Ty]

If you go to battery1234.com and scroll down to How to Power Your House from Your Car with an Inverter you can learn how a fairly cheap DC/AC converter can be hooked up to your car battery to provide emergency power to your house. Depending on your car's alternator, you can get up to 1500-2000W of power, which is enough to run a fridge or freezer. You car acts as the generator and you can run for a loooong time on a full tank. That would allow you to get up and running quickly if you lose power.

You could also invest in a small battery bank and run your incubator off that while it's constantly recharged from your wall socket. If you lose power, it'll keep going. Two good sized deep cell batteries would probably keep you running for two days. It's more expensive than an inverter running off your car, but you don't have to be there to switch the power over. Depending on the value of your hatching eggs, it could be worth while. Also, if you sell your chicks or chickens, you should be able to deduct the cost of either method.

 

[comitdust]

Thanks awesome advice!