Power outage!!!

[Sharon Yorks]

I had planned to set eggs on January 1st, but since my 3 girls had each given me 7 eggs in 9 days, I figured 21 eggs were plenty and I set them a day early. When I woke up this morning, I looked at the clock and it was blank. I leaped out of bed and ran to the incubator. My husband looked at me like, “Where’s the fire?” I asked him how long had the electric been off and he said about 30 minutes. I thought, “Crap! That’s what I get for setting them a day early!” The temperature was 95. I threw a towel over the incubator (hoping to help hold in the heat) then called the electric company. They said it would be about 2 hours before it would be restored in our area.

Long story short, we borrowed a generator and had it back up and running within an hour, but not before the temperature had dropped to 85. Total time without electric was about an hour and a half. Do you think this has done any damage? And what are some helpful tips to do in the case of a power outage…other than go buy a generator, which I’ll probably do anyway. --Sharon

[Mike Gilbert]

Sharon, I expect your eggs will be fine.   I\'m quite sure eggs get down to 85 degrees when a hen leaves her nest for a time to eat and do her business.  If you candle them after 7 to 10 days let us know how they did.

[Tailfeathers]

Hi Sharon, I agree with Mike.  Should have no problem.

A couple of years ago, I remember is was May 3rd, I had a power outage for almost 2 days as I recall.  I actually had eggs hatching at the time and I had put eggs in the incubator 2 days prior.

The Temp dropped to like 50 degrees in the house.  Don\'t remember what the inside incubator temp was but I do recall taking the eggs out of the incubator and putting them inside my coldest rated sleeping bag and then covering that with another sleeping bag.

I took the eggs that were supposed to hatch out of the incubator along with the chicks that had just hatched and took them to a neighbor who had a generator running.  We put them under a heat lamp and they all did fine - including 3-4 chicks that hatched under the light.

Now to what you\'re probably most interested in knowing.  The eggs that I had put in the incubator 2 days prior to hatching did pretty well.  I remember having a really good hatch rate but don\'t recall the percentage.  I think they may have been a day or two late hatching though.  Pretty sure on that but not positive.  

So your power outage occurred at just the right time.  I expect you\'ll see no problems whatsoever.

God Bless,

[Sharon Yorks]

I candled all 21 eggs last night and found (what I think) is 14 good ones. The seven that look clear are all from the same hen. I guess she doesn\'t like my cockerel or is playing a little too hard to get. I guess the power outage didn\'t affect them after all. Whew! We are looking into a generator. Can\'t decide between the Generac GP6500 or Briggs & Stratton 6000 Watt. Anyone had any good or bad luck with any of these? I\'d love to be able to afford the Honda, but they\'re a little out of our price range.  --Sharon

[Mike Gilbert]

If I were to purchase another generator it would have a battery and electric start.

[John]

Generac

I\'ve had a couple and they worked when I needed them, but they were only 4,000 and 3,500 watt units.  I still have the smaller one and use probably use a couple times each year.
My folks had a big one with electric start and it ran on gas or LP.  The problem was they didn\'t start it often and the battery seemed to always be dead when needed.  

[Tailfeathers]

We are looking into a generator. Can\'t decide between the Generac GP6500 or Briggs & Stratton 6000 Watt. Anyone had any good or bad luck with any of these?

Sharon, I researched generators for like six months before buying my Generac GP15000.  Here is a link to a site where you can make side-by-side comparisons for item by item.

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/quick_search.php

This is where I bought mine and it\'s the best site I found online.  You can put like 5 or more generators side by side and make a comparison feature for feature.  I found this to be the most helpful tool online.  Oh, and if you have questions, I also found them to be the most knowledgeable of all the places I talked with.  As a matter of fact, I bought a Generac (which is supposedly one of, if not the, best) and the folks at Generac were so lacking in their ability to answer any questions that I almost decided I didn’t want to buy a Generac.  But the guy at EGD was tremendously helpful  - Chris if I remember right – and he knew a LOT more about their generators than Generac seemed to.  

I bought the GP15000E but I would imagine you could get by with a 6500-8000 watt unit.  When I was doing my research, everybody was telling me “You can probably get by with an 8000…”  Well, it was the “probably” that bothered me.  Everybody said a 10,000 watt unit would be plenty but at the time I bought mine the 8000 unit ran about $1200 I think and the 10,000 unit was just under $2000.  The 15,000 unit I bought was only $200 more than the 10,000 and I could only get the XG10000 which requires a special circuit box and GFI switches/plug-ins to be used in the house and outside everywhere.  That would have cost me more to do than the GP15000E which is why I bought it.  

Oh, and here’s another great thing about them.  Not only were they all that I described above but they were actually cheaper than anywhere else (including going directly to the factory which some won’t even do) AND they have FREE shipping!

Hope that helps!

God Bless,

[Sharon Yorks]

Thanks for the info. I will be sure to check them out. I was trying to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of smaller and larger units, and I guess it all depends on why you are looking for a generator in the first place. I am more of a \"survival\" type of girl. I am more concerned with necessities than conveniences. I want to make sure we can keep our refrigerator, sump pump, heat, and a few other necessities going in case of a major lengthy outage. I\'m concerned with how much gas the larger units require and how much gas a person would have to have on hand. If something major happened, I don\'t think anyone would be able to get near a gas pump. My son borrowed a Honda 3000is when this last outage occurred. What a GREAT little unit. It runs something like 20 hours on 3 gallons of gas and is REAL quiet...but real expensive, too. I think it ran near $2000. My husband insisted that wasn\'t large enough. He\'s probably right, but I don\'t want a gas hog either, just so he won\'t miss a TV show or friends on Facebook. It kind of defeats the purpose of surviving if you don\'t have gas. Just my thoughts anyway. I may have to sit on them eggs myself, next time :-) ...can a person do that???

[FLFAmeraucanas]

I used to sell generators and power units.  I believe the Honda 3000is is actually an inverter which is why it is so quiet, feul efficent and expensive.  A normal generator gives you  (in this example) 3000 watts all the time, and can handle peaks of a few hundred watts higher egnerally.  An inverter only outputs however much you actually need (up to whatever it is rated, again 3000 watts in this example).  They are great but expensive!  We use a Pramac 7500 watt generator as standby here. It can run our sump pump, well, fridge, barn lights, some house lights, and Microwave.  The big drain are when your appliances with an electric motor kick on (fridge, freezer, air conditioner, heat pump, ect.)  If I had an unlimited budget, I\'d go for a 15 KW, Natural Gas unit with an automatic transfer switch Of course that only works if you have access to natural gas...  Our actual unit is gas, but it has saved our tails a time or two!  If you want something dependable (and long lived)stay away from B&S, Generac or any chinese made engine (which alot of them are).  Stick with a Kohler, Honda, or (hard to find) Wisconsin engine. No matter what generator you get, be sure to run it every few months and keep fresh gas with feul stabilizer in it at all times.  Nothing more frustrating then being in an emergency and finding your carb all gummed up!

Did you see the BYC thread on \"the Bra Incubator\" ? LOL.

Edited because I can\'t spell quiet...

[Jess]

Morning,
Just thought I would put in my two bits.
I have a Coleman Powermate 6250 that I use. It run for two weeks after hurricane Katrina. It has a 10 HP OHV Briggs on it and it is real easy to crank. I use it when the power is off for over an hour for my incubators and hatcher.
I crank and run it for about 15-20 minutes at least every month. After I run it a while I cut the gas off and let it run until it quits, so there is no gas in the carburetor or fuel lines.
I used and old Army surplus generator to pump water for the whole community. I would run it at 8 o-clock AM and 5 o-clock PM every day, and folks would line up for about an hour to get water.
We drained gas out of everything we could find. Some folks would bring a little gas, if they had it, so we could pump them water.
How you take care of and service your generator will have a lot to do with how well it will work when you need it.
We are defiantly spoiled to the modern way of life.
Jess

[Beth C]

Good to see you back, Jess!

Mike keeps talking about getting a generator from DERMO, but my concern is where we could get it serviced. We wished we had one after Irene. Which was a minor inconvenience compared to Katrina - what a blessing that generator must have been for your community! Not just for the water itself, but that measure of self-sufficiency amid so much chaos had to have been a good feeling...

[OldChurchEggery]

As the old saying goes, \"Firewood warms you twice.\" We have a woodstove and while winter seems like a distant concern when you\'re sweating and stacking in May, it\'s well worth it come January! When we\'ve had lengthy winter outages we cook on our woodstove, too. I do wish we had some kind of generator, whether gas or solar, to keep our well pump running when the power goes out. That\'s the worst part of it- not having any water for ourselves or the animals. We have to go fill jugs in the creek and tote them all the way up the hill.

[John]

That\'s the worst part of it- not having any water for ourselves or the animals.

We\'re lucky to have city water (from Lake Huron), even though we are on a dead end gravel road in the country.  The city water came thru several years ago, since are are only a couple miles from a large land fill (aka dump).  So, when the power goes out we still have hot (LP hot water heater) and cold running water in the house.
We have a deep well (salty with iron) for the animals.
We have plenty of wood and had a wood burning furnace in the house many years ago.  We would like to have one of those detached ones, but the cost is just too high...for now.
I still have the portable 3,500 watt generator and it is very handy.  The last couple times I used it was to get the incubators going for a few hours when the power went out.  A friend has one of those nice big ones that starts itself up and kicks in when there is a power outage...we can only dream!

[Sharon Yorks]

I agree with the wood burner idea, and last year I insisted for Santa to bring me one or I was going to go get one myself. I\'m sure that financially my husband figured it was cheaper for him to get me one for Christmas since we were going to end up with one, one way or the other. Then, I set out to find all the piping needed to bring it all of the way up from the basement. That cost more than the darn wood burner! All year long, I said, \"We need to get someone to install it.\" It\'s still sitting in the box!!! Where do I find the directions on how to knock a dang hole in the wall and what kind of glue to use? Can someone please send me a link?

I\'ve been doing a little more research on the generators. I\'m now thinking it might be smarter to get one that runs on propane. I didn\'t realize they make portables like that. Propane bottles would be much easier to store and I wouldn\'t have to worry about every time I fill up 3-4 containers, put stay-bil in it, then feel comfortable we have extra gas in case of an emergency, I go to the barn and find empty containers and filled up four wheelers and lawn mowers. Ha! Let\'s see them fill em up with propane! Plus, we have 250 gallon propane tank that is only used for our gas fireplace and is almost always full. I\'m now looking seriously at a: ETQ PG60B12 Portable Propane Generator 7000watt. I just need to read some more reviews and find out were it\'s made.

Sharon

[Sharon Yorks]

Well, it looks like we have finally made a decision on a generator. We\'re going to pray about it and sleep on it tonight, then if all still seems like a go in the morning, we\'ll be calling to order a: Powerland Tri-Fuel (Gasoline, LPG & NG) Generator 10000/8000 W 16 HP / Electric Start. I really like the idea of it running on gas or propane. They also make a 6500/5500 watt unit, but we decided to go with the bigger one.

My eggs are safe now. I did check out the BYC thread on \"the Bra Incubator.\" That wouldn\'t work for me. I\'m wanting to hatch LF  

Sharon