Power went out- AACK!!!

[CowgirlMama]

So, I woke up this morning to no power... I jumped out of bed- literally- and had to go get firewood (of course there was none stacked by the house!). But of course, I check the chicks first... the brooder seemed to be holding heat ok, so I went and got wood and was prepared to bring the babies in the house... by the time I got the wood loaded in the car and back to the house, unloaded and started to build a fire in the wood stove, the power came back on... crisis averted... Well- the power went out AGAIN 20-30 minutes ago... I now have 37 chickies in my living room by my wood stove to keep them warm... my garage just was not warm enough, and the power wasn't on long enough to re-heat the brooder... my poor dog is being TORMENTED by the sound of the chicks peeping... (he's a Black Lab and my hunting dog...)! My 11 month old daughter however, who LOVES the chicks, could care less! Luckily- I got my coffee made before the power went out the second time, so I should be good... Hopefully the power comes back on soon.... the battery in my laptop is about to die!! Lol....

What have you done when the power goes out? Oh, my chicks are 2 1/2 weeks old, so they do have quite a bit of feathering, which helps... but they were all huddled up in the brooder in the garage....

 

[duckyfromoz]

I had a three hour power failure one night ( about 1 am I think ) when I had thirty ducklings of various ages and one mid hatch. After half an hour I filled some hot water bottles - ( gas hot water thankfully) for some of the ducklings. The youngest lot went into bed with my daughter - the one week old ducklings went into my bed with me - and the half hatched egg went down my shirt.

I hope your power doesn't get interrupted too much more- it really is hard to know what to do with them at times.

 

[galanie]

During the hurricane we had a few years ago I took my laptop to the car to keep it charged. I'm obviously addicted to the internet. Be hard to get dozens of babies in there though. I will join you in hoping your power stays on this time.

 

[bburn]

Power going out is a real issue. Here it seems to go out at the drop of a hat.

We have made it the last week through the storms we have been having without a power outage. I don't have a generator.

Things I got to get me through an outage:

a converter for the car or truck that I can plug in to....for the incubator and the brooder light
hand warmers like the fellas use to go hunting but these are the bigger ones....figure I can wrap them in towels and put them in the brooder

that is it but it sure made me feel like I would not be completely helpless!

 

[Chickeninthemeadow]

My area was recently hit by tornados and that took our power out from Saturday afternoon around 4:30 to Monday afternoon around 4:30 (go figure) anyway, we went 48 hours without power.

Immediately-
I put a nice fleecy blanket in the brooder, the birds all huddled under it.
We put a larger heavier blanket over the brooder to hold in as much heat as we could from when the lights were on.
The birds went 1 night with that.

The next day, we got a generator up and running, ran it part of that day and only overnight Sunday night, turning it off around 8 in the morning Monday morning.

We lost 1 chick out of our 12.

Hopefully, your power will be back on soon.

 

[Coenobita]

I had the power go out a while ago- the chicks were in the basement, so the heat was getting out of their container really fast. We had to start a fire in the wood-burning stove, and put all the chicks in a container right next to it. Of course once we had got them all situated, the power came on again

 

[KBlue]

<double post... ignore>

 

[KBlue]

Haven't tried this but I'm thinking you could keep a couple of the air activated thermal heat pads (like Thermacare) under a towel on the floor of the brooder, that would at least generate some heat from the bottom up. They are supposed to last several hours too, so it should get you through at least most power outages.

 

[CowgirlMama]

Well, the power was out for almost 2 hours... and it hasn't gone out since (thank goodness!!). The hot water bottle is a great idea- except that I have no water when the power goes out... we're on a well...

And my hot water heater is electric... I can boil water on the wood stove, so I could probably heat water to fill a water bottle... but I really like the handwarmer and Thermacare ideas... I should probably stock up on some (for the next time around....). We live in an area with LOTS of wind, so I'm sure that's what knocked the power out.

Thanks for the tips and ideas!!