The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching
Ice Storm
Paul:
We survived the ice storm and power outage. Hopefully our seventh hatch of the season did also. They were started at 9:30 AM on Tuesday Feb. 13, 2018-one day late due to Matthew showing at the San Antonio and San Angelo hog shows.
Our electricity temporarily went out on Wednesday Feb. 21, at 7:15 AM and 9:15 AM. 1:15 PM it went down. We fired-up our seventeen year old generator and plugged in two GQF incubators and a heat lamp on chicks just removed from our incubator from our sixth hatch only moments before the outage. This was our first experience using the generator for the incubators. The electric power has temporarily gone out several times while we were hatching in the past, but this is the first time that it stayed out. We purchased the generator to run the travel trailer that we use to take to the poultry shows.
The generator ran great for about three hours, then terrible for another one and half hours before dying. We immediately went to town to purchase another generator to find all 3 stores closed due to out of power. Some parts of Gainesville had power and others didn’t. We had to go to Sherman, a neighboring town 40 miles away to purchase a new generator. The incubators and heat lamp were off for 3 ½ hours by the time we had the new generator in operation. Three freezers and two refrigerators were also powered up by 10:00 PM. The incubators were closely monitored and adjusted in an attempt to maintain the correct temp as the room temp decreased due to the heat being out. Electricity was restored at 8:00 AM on Thursday Feb. 22, only to have it go out again at 10:00 AM and remained out until 6:00 PM. The generator rested for 2 hours then back to work for another 8.
We are eager to see what hatches on March 6 as this is a new experience for us.
Susan Mouw:
Oh my! I hope most of your hatch survives all that and the rest of your hatches go great.
Don:
Paul, Sorry that you're having such a bizarre winter, is that freezing rain out of the norm for you area this time of year? I expect your hatches will be fine. I've heard of much longer outages and hatches better than normal. We are on the other extreme right now with the Bermuda High weather system pumping warm air into our area. This week we've had temps in the mid 70s, pushing 80 degrees. Next week we drop back to the 60s for the highs, but even that is much warmer than our norm for this time of year. Just seems like the weather is going crazy. Stay warm and Good luck with the chicks.
Paul:
Our weather is so different now, there is no norm for our area anymore. We plan to continue with the eggs through their hatch date. The temp was like a roller coaster inside the incubators. Hopefully some will still hatch. We will post the outcome. Thanks for adding to the hope.
Sarah Meaders:
Paul and Angela! I am so sorry you have had to deal with all this! I do hope your eggs come out ok! Praying for y'all!
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