The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching

Power outage!!!

(1/5) > >>

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.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page