Hello, I'm new to BYC, and incubating. I started my first round of incubating chicken eggs a few weeks ago, and at day 17, we had a power outage. I didn't know what to do at first, so I let the incubator get to 60 degrees for 6 hours. Then I got the idea to put the eggs in oven with candles. I did this for the remaining 12 hours of the outage (it lasted total 30 hours). The incubator was up and running again after 30 hours of being off. This morning was day 23, and no chicks yet. What are the chances the eggs have died? Any thoughts? Thanks
Here's an article by Brinsea that may help you: http://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/PowerOff.aspx 60 degrees for six hours at that stage, probably would be too much for them. They are developing some body heat at that point, but not enough to sustain them for that long I wouldn't think. Even a newly hatched chick needs a heated brooder with temps around 95 to keep from getting chilled and dying. I wouldn't hold out much hope. I would candle and look for life, but it would surprise me if there were survivors. Good luck.
The same thing happened to me - power outage. Within minutes put the eggs in an egg carton, wrapped it with a towel & stuffed it in the oven with candles under the rack with a bowl of water, closed the door but it was only for a few hours. It was years ago don't recall what stage the eggs were at, they survived. As AmyLynn2374 suggested it's probably been too long however but candle to check. Good luck and update us.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I got home yesterday, and had no chicks. This was my first ever incubation, and had a really hard time candling the eggs, it was really hard to see. I did candle them after they had been heated up in the oven for a few hours, but movement was really hard to see even when they were in the incubator, and saw no movement. As stated in the post before, I think the eggs spent too long being cold. I have brushed myself off from this loss, and am collecting some fertile eggs from my cochin bantam hen, and trying to gather some more fertile eggs for the hatch-a-long this weekend and will try again. I had so much fun watching the eggs that I did have, I can't wait to do it again! Incubating is so much fun!
it happens to the best of us, I had a failed hatch of 28 perfectly developed chicks after my thermostat in my incubator broke. one almost zipped and died due to the temp raising so much. All you can do is take it as a learnt lesson (although yours really wasn't anything you can do about a power outage) and try again. I have 36 eggs in the incubator now and are developing nicely. (cochin bantams). Good luck on your next hatch.
