Incubator off all night! Eggs cold! Are they ok?? Yes!! My story to help others

[Bibits]

Thank you so much for posting your story. I came down this morning and found my incubator off (I too suspect the cat!) and 7 cold 2 weeks incubated Maran eggs. I too was about to throw them away, but I got the incubator going while i checked the internet for advice and found your post. I will leave the eggs in and report back in a week's time if they have hatched (and I will also leave it a couple of extra days if they are not bang on time). Thank you so much for sharing this - i may not be so lucky but at least I know it is worth a try
Kate

I just want to thank all of you for the the advice & wisdom! I am incubating chicken, turkey, & duck eggs all for the first time (I have never gone this nor seen it done-ever- so far so good, had some hatch & all going great, well until about 20 minutes ago I noticed my incubator was off!!! I don't know for how long it's been unplugged! Internal temp of incubator was 74⁰, the incubator is full with different eggs at different diffrent stages! I immediately paniced & plugged back up, but I'm a little less freaked out about it now that I've read all of your experiences, still freaked out just not as bad! Thank You all for sharing your stories & wisdom you may have saved me from a mental breakdown or small heart attack (kidding)

 

[Gracemercy]

Insightful post. I just walked in the house to find one of my incubators unplugged and eggs cold. Must have happened about 10:30 or 11a.m. this morning and I just got back in about 8:30p.m. These are bobwhite and coturnix quail eggs, and they're about 2 or 3 days away from hatching. Turned the incubator back on and hoping for the best..

 

[Regina Ndune]

This happened to me a few months ago and I have been meaning to post my story here in hopes of helping others freak out a little less when they have something similar happen.

On this particular morning, I went into the room where my incubator was kept to find my Genesis 1588 Styrofoam incubator was off and unplugged! Since I hadn't been in there since about 10 pm the night before to check it and the door had been shut all night, it had to have happened just before I closed the door around 10 and it was about 8 am now. I figure the cat did it right before I shut the door!

My first thought of course was that eggs were ruined. The thermometers inside were showing about 70 degrees and they had been this way for hours. I had a couple of different groups of eggs in there. Some were slightly less than a week along and others were somewhere between 10 days and 2 wks when this happened. I candled a few eggs and there was no signs of life that I could see. The embryos appeared dead. I started to just throw the eggs away but I decided to turn on the incubator and let the eggs warm up and see what happened. I had nothing to lose at this point! About 2-3 hrs later I candled a few and I was so excited to see the embryos on the older eggs dancing around! I couldn't tell as much about the younger eggs so I waited a few days and candled again and I could see that they had all made it!

I still worried about having them die on me later from this experience but in the end they were ok. I may have lost another couple before hatching time from this point but that was nothing that wouldn't have likely happened anyway. I had about 25 eggs incubating when this happened. I couldn't believe those eggs could cool down so much for such a long time and still be fine!

There is a lady that has been raising chickens for years that lives near me. I called her to tell her all about what happened. She told me that she hardly worries anymore about her eggs so long as you have everything right most of the time with the exception of the eggs getting too hot. She told me about how that several yrs ago when we had a hurricane come through that cut out power for many for up to 2 wks, she had maran eggs incubating. They had a generator but she couldn't keep the eggs on it all the time. She said that they would run the generator a few hrs a day and during that time she would plug in the incubator for a few hrs then she would have to turn everything off again. She would keep the incubator covered with blankets the rest of the time to try to keep what warmth she could but for the majority of the time, the incubator was off and this went on for two wks until power was restored. She said that those eggs DID hatch. She said those chicks hatched about 2 wks later than they would have under normal condidtions but they did hatch and she said they weren't weak and sickly as you might expect them to be. Anyway, I found that story to be truly amazing! Her story made my experience seem like nothing! She said mother nature gives the eggs more ability to survive than we think. She said that over the years she has seen many "stupid" hens apparently forget that they had a batch of eggs to sit on and would go roost with the rest of the flock overnight or even longer before they "remembered" they had eggs to take care of! These eggs would still hatch!

Since my experience and what she told me, I no longer worry about eggs getting a little cool in the small amount of time it takes to candle them or for short power outages which has happened a few times since. I once rushed my incubator out to the car the moment power went out to plug into the adapter. Power ended up being out just 30 minutes. I wouldn't do that now. I just cover the incubators with blankets and wait it out. Granted I would never want another outage or to find my incubator unplugged but things do happen beyond our control and I just want to say that in my case, everything still turned out ok. Since my experience, incubating is a little stressful since I learned not to worry about everything so much!

very encouraging for me in coz an incubator was just delivered to help us in our daycare program to get eggs and chicken for meat to improve on the diet of the kids from needy enviroment. we will also give some chikcs to needy homestead to start poultry to reduce the level of poverty.
we had a power blackuout for 12 hours and was beggining to worry. now i feel confident because of this testimony

 

[Dideedoodalie]

Than

This happened to me a few months ago and I have been meaning to post my story here in hopes of helping others freak out a little less when they have something similar happen.

On this particular morning, I went into the room where my incubator was kept to find my Genesis 1588 Styrofoam incubator was off and unplugged! Since I hadn't been in there since about 10 pm the night before to check it and the door had been shut all night, it had to have happened just before I closed the door around 10 and it was about 8 am now. I figure the cat did it right before I shut the door!

My first thought of course was that eggs were ruined. The thermometers inside were showing about 70 degrees and they had been this way for hours. I had a couple of different groups of eggs in there. Some were slightly less than a week along and others were somewhere between 10 days and 2 wks when this happened. I candled a few eggs and there was no signs of life that I could see. The embryos appeared dead. I started to just throw the eggs away but I decided to turn on the incubator and let the eggs warm up and see what happened. I had nothing to lose at this point! About 2-3 hrs later I candled a few and I was so excited to see the embryos on the older eggs dancing around! I couldn't tell as much about the younger eggs so I waited a few days and candled again and I could see that they had all made it!

I still worried about having them die on me later from this experience but in the end they were ok. I may have lost another couple before hatching time from this point but that was nothing that wouldn't have likely happened anyway. I had about 25 eggs incubating when this happened. I couldn't believe those eggs could cool down so much for such a long time and still be fine!

There is a lady that has been raising chickens for years that lives near me. I called her to tell her all about what happened. She told me that she hardly worries anymore about her eggs so long as you have everything right most of the time with the exception of the eggs getting too hot. She told me about how that several yrs ago when we had a hurricane come through that cut out power for many for up to 2 wks, she had maran eggs incubating. They had a generator but she couldn't keep the eggs on it all the time. She said that they would run the generator a few hrs a day and during that time she would plug in the incubator for a few hrs then she would have to turn everything off again. She would keep the incubator covered with blankets the rest of the time to try to keep what warmth she could but for the majority of the time, the incubator was off and this went on for two wks until power was restored. She said that those eggs DID hatch. She said those chicks hatched about 2 wks later than they would have under normal condidtions but they did hatch and she said they weren't weak and sickly as you might expect them to be. Anyway, I found that story to be truly amazing! Her story made my experience seem like nothing! She said mother nature gives the eggs more ability to survive than we think. She said that over the years she has seen many "stupid" hens apparently forget that they had a batch of eggs to sit on and would go roost with the rest of the flock overnight or even longer before they "remembered" they had eggs to take care of! These eggs would still hatch!

Since my experience and what she told me, I no longer worry about eggs getting a little cool in the small amount of time it takes to candle them or for short power outages which has happened a few times since. I once rushed my incubator out to the car the moment power went out to plug into the adapter. Power ended up being out just 30 minutes. I wouldn't do that now. I just cover the incubators with blankets and wait it out. Granted I would never want another outage or to find my incubator unplugged but things do happen beyond our control and I just want to say that in my case, everything still turned out ok. Since my experience, incubating is a little stressful since I learned not to worry about everything so much!

Thankyou so much for this post.
I had a massive storm last night and the power was out all night. I tried to keep my eggs (Cayuga duck and Bronzewing turkey) warm with a hot water bottle but when I work they were stone cold. After finding this post, I immediately took them to the closest person with power and they are warming again. They are 7 days off hatching and I have been sick with worry. I paid over $100 for thaws eggs and my pet turkey really needs a new wife, so I am desperate for them to hatch. Thankyou so much for the hope.

 

[chickfused]

I needed this post today, I've got a "stupid" hen and I've rescued her eggs from her more times than you can think. If she'd just forget and break broody, that'd be fine. But she forgets for 12-16 hours and then goes right back to it. She clearly needs babies to finish this out. The eggs are developing, but slowly.

 

[Chicalina]

I needed this post today, I've got a "stupid" hen and I've rescued her eggs from her more times than you can think. If she'd just forget and break broody, that'd be fine. But she forgets for 12-16 hours and then goes right back to it. She clearly needs babies to finish this out. The eggs are developing, but slowly.

Have you tried moving her and the nest to a cardboard box where she cannot get out? Then let her out for half an hour a day to poop, eat and drink before putting her back in. Sure fire way to help her settle and hatch those little fluffy butts!

 

[chickfused]

She's settled, she just settles in the wrong place. Next to the eggs. In her sister's nest. Etc. Most days it works, but about twice a week I'm having to correct foolishness. And no, I'm not really able to control her in such a fashion so easily. Hopefully it'll be ok. If not, I've already got 20 babies for this year. I just need her to hatch or break brood so she'll be healthy.

 

[MezM]

Great thread, I just had the same 'oh no!' moment when I realised the incubator had been unplugged (cat also the likely suspect!). It's probably been around 6 hours and the temperature was down to 13.5degree Celcius. Duck eggs, at day 15 (Muscovy so longer incubation time). Is this too cold for too long? Overnight temp inside the house would have been around 5 degrees celcius (no internal heating!). Temp back up to 37.5 , humidity rising from 47% as I type...Thank you.

 

[chickfused]

We had a decent hatch. Great rates? Nope, but I ended up with 7 babies out of around 14 fertile eggs. I honestly think egg quality had a lot to do with this - unscrupulous eBay seller.

 

[Altheaj]

Thank you all for your stories. My incubator was unplugged by a sweet little 4 yr old. I have guineas and peafowl in my incubator. I was about to throw them all out until I read the posts here....thanks again. I will keep it going.