What Do You Do When There Is A Power Outage RE: Incubator

[katharinad]

Quote:
You know that is what farm wifes had to do before they had incubators. Obviously they preferred the mother bird to take care of it.

 

[katharinad]

We have a really big one, and man that one it deafening. Really loud. Huge engine, but it can run 6 major appliances at the same time. It also has the really fat power cord with 6 plugs on the end so you can pull it into the house (dog door) and keep the generator far away. Usually our carport at the shop. With a big power outage we run the large fridge, freezer chest, oil heater, well water pump and some other small appliances. In general we don't have power issues in summer, but harsh winter storms can be an issue. We are used to see the power go out in winter for 5 minutes at a time. We have UPS boxes everywhere, and can actually watch 2 hours TV on one of them. They cannot supply enough power to a fridge etc, but they small stuff is just fine. We pull the generator out of our storage shed when we have more then 30 minutes without power.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep generators are best if you have frequent problems with outages. A thick blanket wrapped tightly around the incubator is all you need for outages under 8 hours or so. That's all I do, just never , ever open it, leave it wrapped at all times. The air temp in the incubator will fall way faster that the internal temp of the egg, the shell acts like an insulator for them. Also if they are over a week or so in development, they will generate some heat on their own. This all I ever do, except for hurricane outages, and never lost a developing chick. Actually unplugged one to candle them, needed the outlet, got side tracked, left it off for 24 hours before I caught it, though for sure they were all done for, it was full too, 100+ eggs. Everyone hatched still. So small outages are as big of a worry as people think. Though always best to be safe than sorry.
My luck was 100 eggs, 2/3 developed, they made their own heat to a degree in that case.