Scheduled power outage

[Bird Brain]

I have an older model cabinet Sportsman incubator. On day 12, Sunday at midnight until 3am, there will be a scheduled outage for maintence. Obviously I wont be opening up the bator, but do yall think I should run the temp up a little before, so that it may stay high enough for the three hours? Or will all be well for 3 hours?

Why do they insist on screwing with my first hatch?!
And crap, I have eggs I was gonna put in tomorrow and duck eggs that should be arriving tomorrow!!! Should I wait or can I go ahead and put them in?!

 

[jbowen9]

I would get some blankets and be ready and start putting them on at 11pm to they will heat up and help hold some heat in

 

[Teresaann24]

Yes cover your incubator and add some Hot water bottles to it before the power outtage. Remember a hen gets off the nest and goes and eats a poos and drinks water...So they do cool off during incubation.

 

[dancingbear]

Yeah, what Teresaann said. Blankets, etc. But I'd wait until after the outage to start the new eggs, and see if there's anyway you can have a back-up in case the power's not back on as scheduled.

I once kept a new chick warm about 10 hours with one of those thermal patches like people use for back pain. I don't know how hot those get, exactly, but eggs can take quite a bit of a drop for a little while, as long as it's not too much of a drop.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

I lost power for 6 hours on a 40 degree night. I just covered the incubators with blankets and all my eggs hatched except for one. I was on day 13 when it happened to me. The power was out for 10 hours!

Good luck!

Laurie

 

[Slywoody]

Could you borrow a generator?

 

[DANNY]

Throw a blanket over it and don't worry about it. It won't hurt them.

 

[TimG]

I'm guessing you'll be OK without doing anything. But is there any way you can add mass inside the incubator? Add a brick(s) or a water bottle(s) or just plain old rocks well ahead of the power outage so that they get up to temperature and they'll help slow the cooling off during the power outage.

Also, remember that as the incubator cools, the eggs do not cool uniformly. That is, if the air temperature in the incubator falls to 97 degrees, the inside of the eggs won't fall all the way to 97 degrees immediately. It takes time for that heat to travel through the shell and be transferred to the air.

 

[Bird Brain]

Thanks for all the info. Will prob do blankets and bricks