Power Cut !!!

[thermal]

I have duck eggs in the incubator that have pipped and we have a power cut ....panic !! How long will they be ok for ? I also have a day old chick under heat, I have wrapped her in a towel under my jacket. Will she be ok ??

 

[BYCforlife]

If you have a towel over the incubator to conserve heat, they could possibly still hatch after a 12 hour power outage. Hope it goes okay for you.

 

[yorkie6]

How long eggs can survive in the incubator without power depends on a variety of factors. Length of time the power is out is an obvious one, and so is air temperature in the room --- shorter outages and warmer rooms cause less of an impact. You can close all the vents, add a hot water bottle if you have one, and wrap the incubator up in a blanket to conserve heat which will mitigate the outage to some extent.

Another factor to consider is age of the eggs. The further along your chicks are in their development, the less likely they will be negatively affected by a power outage. As embryos develop, they begin to produce a bit of heat by themselves, which warms the inside of the incubator slightly. Hope this helps!

 

[Erka97]

I recently did an experiment to determine this, and I had one egg survive -though it later died, day 19-20, probably of other causes- for 9 hours outside the incubator on day nine or ten. Other eggs, which were out closer to four or five hours on the same day, are fine and set to hatch either today or tomorrow.
Hope that helps.

 

[Erka97]

Pipped eggs, by the way, should fare better because of their own body heat, I've rescued those from abandoned nests outside -bad duck moms leaving their babies- after nearly a day and they did fine.