Power outage--question

[krv]

My son has eggs in his homemade incubator right now, on day 14. Our power is NOT out---yet, but what should we do if our power does go out? We had sleet and ice last night and there are some power outages already in my county. Is there anything we can do for a few hours to keep the incubation of the chicks alright,

or do we just take it as a loss and go on with maybe hatching more?

My son thought that maybe putting a couple of lit candles in there would help. I have no idea.

krv (son is Rick--he's 14 yrs. old)

 

[Chicken Woman]

Don't cover with a blanket as that deprives them of need oxygen. if you have another heat source besides electric like a wood stove or fireplace i would move it near that heat source and keep the bator closed. Many people have had mutiple outages and still got a decent hatch.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

The candles would be a fire hazard. Just rap it in a blanket if the power outages is under 2 hours. any more than that an you can put containers of hot water in the incubator.

My fridge-incubator is outside an went threw a 6 hour outage on a 30 degree night an still hatched fine. So I wouldn't worry to much about outages.

 

[ranchhand]

Hi, I'm not sure about what to do- I would probably go with warm jars of water, wrapped in a towel, rotated regularly. There was a recent thread on this forum about this type of situation, if I can locate it I'll let you know. Good luck with the nasty weather!

But NOT candles- aside from the fire risk, they will deplete the oxygen level!

 

[dbcooper02]

I don't know that I would recommend candles. If there is extra room in the incubator now you could put in some bottles of warm water to create a heat sink. Once warmed up they will keep their heat for longer than just eggs. You will also have hot water available from your water heater for a while so you could prepare hot water bottles even after the power goes off.
db

 

[wbjdmd]

If you want to spend a little money or already have one, you could use a computer battery backup. This would run it for a little while, longer if you don't have a fan inside.

 

[tcltoughmom]

Hi- would like to hear more on the home made incubator-- what about the hand warmers you can get for hunting---you could put it under the wire or stand in corner, Teresa in WV

 

[Chicken Woman]

Hand and toe warmers under the wire is a really good idea as they last several hours. You would probably need to use several of them tho.

 

[sben451]

Do know if this would help, but we have battery back-up for my son's respiratory equipment--in case of power outages. We use the deep cycle batteries--like the batteries for trolling motors in fishing boats, but I think a lawnmower or tractor or auto battery might work. Along with the battery, we use a power inverter. That way you can used the DC power from the battery through the inverter which converts it to AC and has a regular receptacle to plug in your equipment (in your case, your incubator).

 

[Akane]

I heard of some people sticking the bator in the oven to help hold in the heat if the power is only out a few hours. Long term a battery backup would be best and saved more than one hatch for me last fall. I found out by accident flood lamp flashlights (not leds) do put out a fair amount of heat. I pointed mine at the bator to see in the window easier and left it on. It actually triggered the heat wafer to think it was warmer than the air temp in the bator and kept the heat from coming on. That was almost a disaster. It takes 4 D batteries but I've yet to replace them and I've left it on all night multiple times. Someone in chat a few days ago had a lamp that hooked to their laptop and were keeping the bator warm that way. Not sure where you'd get one of those though and I doubt it lasts more than a few hours. If you could find a battery operated heating pad that would be good too and the hand warmers are a useful idea.

you could prepare hot water bottles even after the power goes off.

When my power goes out water does not run. The sink spurts for a few minutes and that's it. The toilet does not refill. Unless you tapped the hot water heater directly you have nothing. The only way I'd get hot water is to fire up the wood burning stove in the basement and find some way to route the smoke out the window then put a pot of snow on it.​