POWER OUTAGE!

[fishin_dad]

Lost power and we have no idea how long it will be out. I have 2 hatched, 1pip and 22 eggs between 2 batches on lockdown. I have no idea what to do other than combine both batches into 1 and put a couple of hot hands hand warmers in the incubator. Temp is 91 and rising humidity is at 76. Fingers crossed. It will be a long night at least until the power comes back on.

 

[CindyinSD]

Do you have anything (drinking water bottles, etc) to fill with hot water?

 

[fishin_dad]

Added the hot hands to the incubator and it kept it at 95 degrees for the 3 hrs that the power was off. I had to watch it very closely because the humidity was shooting up too high without the fan running. This morning there are 2 more babies and 6 more eggs that have not internally pipped yet. Its day 22 so not too worried but I pray that the moving and such that had to be done due to the power outage didn't kill them on hatch day.

 

[CindyinSD]

I mess with mine--take out shells, candle some I'm worried about, take one out for a cuddle... it doesn't seem to cause any problems. The humidity rises during hatching even without additional reasons, just because the chicks are wet. If you have condensation on your incubator's lid, go ahead and take the hatched chicks to the heated brooder. They will not dry in the incubator. I wipe down the lid and even sop out water from below, with an old t-shirt, etc.

Your hatch delay might have been caused by lower temps earlier in incubation. If you haven't calibrated or found the necessary correction with a calibrated thermometer, you should look into doing that. Incubator thermometers are sometimes calibratable, but seldom accurate without calibration.

 

[fishin_dad]

When I moved the 4 that hatched to the brooder I candled the remaining 6 and none of them showed any life. One was internally pipped so I did an assist hole and a piece of the shell popped off. The membrane was shrunk down tight on the bird. It had begun to absorb the yolk but I guess the power outage threw me a curve and the humidity dropped at the wrong time.