Incubator Power Outage

[t1109d1]

Hi all, I am new to this forum, and pretty new to keeping chickens. I have 40 eggs in an incubator, and on day 7 the power went out for about 16 hours. The temperature in the incubator was down to about 72 by the time it came back. I thought I would ride out the hatch, and we are now on day 14. I see movement in all the eggs, and the air cell looks to be about the right size, but the embryos look *alot* smaller than my last hatch. I would say they take up maybe 1/3 of the space inside the egg. I have enough eggs to abanodon this hatch and start over, but I need to make a decision as the new eggs are about 5 days old and if I am going hatch them it needs to be soon. The problem is I just lost both my Americana hens and there are 6 of their eggs in the 'bator now, and the last 6 i will ever get on the counter that could go in. Which ones do I put my money on? Any thoughts? Does anyone actually have any pictures of egg development at 14 days for me to compare too? I searched around but could not find anything with enough detail to help me. Any help would be appreciated.

David

 

[paddock36]

I wouldn't give up on them. Development was probably just slowed down due to the power being out.

 

[Debbi]

I agree! Hang in there with them, they may just hatch a bit later than normal. Lower temps are always better than heat spikes! Good luck!

 

[pfmoore17]

I re cently had my bator go down for two days, but kept going.
I had 12 eggs, 6 were clear and sterile and 4 out of the 6 remaining ones hatched, about 12 hours later than in the past.

Keep your fingers crossed! Go for it!

 

[BuckeyeDave]

Plug it back in and hope for the best.

 

[t1109d1]

Hi All, just a quick update,

I decided on a compromise. After candling the eggs, I removed 8 of the eggs with the developmentally smallest embryos to make room for the next round of Amerucana eggs. Of the 32 eggs from the original batch that I left in, 24 hatched and 21 Chicks survived. They are all doing very well. They are still hanging out in the living room... That to me is quite amazing. To each of you who told me to hang on, 21 little chicks say thank you!

 

[ranchhand]

Congratulations!


I didn't post because I agreed with the others. You made a wise decision, great job!

 

[Jacqdiva]

Someone turned my incubator off on lockdown day. So by the time I got there it had been off for 4 hrs. I'm still going to push on and hope for the best. They felt cold to touch. Maybe they died. Feeling down. Your story has given a spark of hope.