STRESSING over this ice storm!

[LTygress]

Atlanta has had it bad this year. First the polar vortex. Then the snowstorm that left kids in school buses, stranded on the interstate. And now this. Ice. Pure ice. Not snow, not rain. But freezing rain and ice that has caused my silkie pen gate to "lock" twice now when it has no actual locking mechanism. The latch was just covered in a full inch of pure ice!

The chickens thought they would be fine running around in it. So they all got drenched. Because of THAT, I have 24 large fowl birds sitting in my sister's laundry room right now. She's not too happy, but my babies will be okay, and that's all I care about. The temperature doesn't worry me. But them being drenched DID worry me. All fixed now.

Well, not really. With ice that has already brought really huge tree limbs crashing down (enough for me to WITNESS three of them myself), Atlanta is dying again. This time though, it's a lack of power. And I have 62 eggs in the incubator! Power issues like this don't normally last a few minutes or hours. They last days. Entire trees fall from the weight of the ice, and already-chilled power lines snap in two.

The power flickered most of the day. Now it's really out, and has been for several hours now. I've thrown thick bathroom rugs, sheets, pillow cases, and comforters all on my incubators to hold the heat as long as possible. Those babies are buried in layer upon layer.

And now, I only hope the power returns before it is too late. Air circulation is taking a back burner to the warmth, because with no power, the household heat is off too. Several friends have offered to take the 'bators to their place and plug them in. The problem with that is the dangerous icy trek to and from their house.

No, we'll stay here and hope for the best. But it certainly isn't going to be easy on my mind!

 

[tlcarnes2176]

I've been through an ice storm in Maryland when I was younger. It isn't very fun. We lost electric for a week. Good luck and hope you get power back soon!

 

[SilverDuck284]

How far along are they? Eggs are pretty good at surviving a drop in temps. My broody hatched 3 babies this past week, she got off her nest 1-2 times a day in 30° weather. If they are starting to generate their own heat (the last week or so) they have even better odds. You should probably get them somewhere with power as soon as its safe to drive. If you have a fire going you can heat some jars of water to help keep the temp up until morning.

 

[LTygress]

They are at all sorts of stages. We got power back early this morning, though and the temp only dropped to about 93 degrees. I wrapped those babies up REALLY good! But I will wait until tomorrow to candle them for activity.

I tend to put eggs in the incubators as they are laid, so I've got eggs due tomorrow, all the way up to 3 weeks from now.

 

[SilverDuck284]

I'm sure they're fine. You did a good job.

Mind if I ask, How does staggering your hatches work out if you add them all the time? Do you have a separate hatcher that you can clean in between hatches?

 

[LTygress]

I don't bother with lockdown. I do move them between the two incubators where the newest ones are in a "dry" incubator, and the older ones get 50% humidity. But the eggs are moved to the humid incubator as there is room for them - not at any set time or day. There are two turning trays missing from the "humid" incubator (they are both broken) so the chicks do have room to hatch. And since the new year I've hatched out about 50-70 chicks with only one lost. The reason I lost that one, is because he made an internal pip and then turned inside of the egg until his own body covered the hole from the pip, and he suffocated. There isn't much you can do about a chick that randomly turns on his own like that, though. Considering the number that have hatched successfully though, that's a pretty good hatch rate.

 

[SilverDuck284]

Thats impressive. How often do you clean them? My biggest concern is bacteria build up from hatching.

 

[LTygress]

Probably about once a month or so. And when I clean them, I put them in the dishwasher. The bleach in the dishwasher detergent, plus the power of the sprayers in there, usually gets a lot of stuff out.