This happened to me a few months ago and I have been meaning to post my story here in hopes of helping others freak out a little less when they have something similar happen.
On this particular morning, I went into the room where my incubator was kept to find my Genesis 1588 Styrofoam incubator was off and unplugged! Since I hadn't been in there since about 10 pm the night before to check it and the door had been shut all night, it had to have happened just before I closed the door around 10 and it was about 8 am now. I figure the cat did it right before I shut the door!
My first thought of course was that eggs were ruined. The thermometers inside were showing about 70 degrees and they had been this way for hours. I had a couple of different groups of eggs in there. Some were slightly less than a week along and others were somewhere between 10 days and 2 wks when this happened. I candled a few eggs and there was no signs of life that I could see. The embryos appeared dead. I started to just throw the eggs away but I decided to turn on the incubator and let the eggs warm up and see what happened. I had nothing to lose at this point! About 2-3 hrs later I candled a few and I was so excited to see the embryos on the older eggs dancing around! I couldn't tell as much about the younger eggs so I waited a few days and candled again and I could see that they had all made it!
I still worried about having them die on me later from this experience but in the end they were ok. I may have lost another couple before hatching time from this point but that was nothing that wouldn't have likely happened anyway. I had about 25 eggs incubating when this happened. I couldn't believe those eggs could cool down so much for such a long time and still be fine!
There is a lady that has been raising chickens for years that lives near me. I called her to tell her all about what happened. She told me that she hardly worries anymore about her eggs so long as you have everything right most of the time with the exception of the eggs getting too hot. She told me about how that several yrs ago when we had a hurricane come through that cut out power for many for up to 2 wks, she had maran eggs incubating. They had a generator but she couldn't keep the eggs on it all the time. She said that they would run the generator a few hrs a day and during that time she would plug in the incubator for a few hrs then she would have to turn everything off again. She would keep the incubator covered with blankets the rest of the time to try to keep what warmth she could but for the majority of the time, the incubator was off and this went on for two wks until power was restored. She said that those eggs DID hatch. She said those chicks hatched about 2 wks later than they would have under normal condidtions but they did hatch and she said they weren't weak and sickly as you might expect them to be. Anyway, I found that story to be truly amazing! Her story made my experience seem like nothing! She said mother nature gives the eggs more ability to survive than we think. She said that over the years she has seen many "stupid" hens apparently forget that they had a batch of eggs to sit on and would go roost with the rest of the flock overnight or even longer before they "remembered" they had eggs to take care of! These eggs would still hatch!
Since my experience and what she told me, I no longer worry about eggs getting a little cool in the small amount of time it takes to candle them or for short power outages which has happened a few times since. I once rushed my incubator out to the car the moment power went out to plug into the adapter. Power ended up being out just 30 minutes. I wouldn't do that now. I just cover the incubators with blankets and wait it out. Granted I would never want another outage or to find my incubator unplugged but things do happen beyond our control and I just want to say that in my case, everything still turned out ok. Since my experience, incubating is a little stressful since I learned not to worry about everything so much!
On this particular morning, I went into the room where my incubator was kept to find my Genesis 1588 Styrofoam incubator was off and unplugged! Since I hadn't been in there since about 10 pm the night before to check it and the door had been shut all night, it had to have happened just before I closed the door around 10 and it was about 8 am now. I figure the cat did it right before I shut the door!
My first thought of course was that eggs were ruined. The thermometers inside were showing about 70 degrees and they had been this way for hours. I had a couple of different groups of eggs in there. Some were slightly less than a week along and others were somewhere between 10 days and 2 wks when this happened. I candled a few eggs and there was no signs of life that I could see. The embryos appeared dead. I started to just throw the eggs away but I decided to turn on the incubator and let the eggs warm up and see what happened. I had nothing to lose at this point! About 2-3 hrs later I candled a few and I was so excited to see the embryos on the older eggs dancing around! I couldn't tell as much about the younger eggs so I waited a few days and candled again and I could see that they had all made it!
I still worried about having them die on me later from this experience but in the end they were ok. I may have lost another couple before hatching time from this point but that was nothing that wouldn't have likely happened anyway. I had about 25 eggs incubating when this happened. I couldn't believe those eggs could cool down so much for such a long time and still be fine!
There is a lady that has been raising chickens for years that lives near me. I called her to tell her all about what happened. She told me that she hardly worries anymore about her eggs so long as you have everything right most of the time with the exception of the eggs getting too hot. She told me about how that several yrs ago when we had a hurricane come through that cut out power for many for up to 2 wks, she had maran eggs incubating. They had a generator but she couldn't keep the eggs on it all the time. She said that they would run the generator a few hrs a day and during that time she would plug in the incubator for a few hrs then she would have to turn everything off again. She would keep the incubator covered with blankets the rest of the time to try to keep what warmth she could but for the majority of the time, the incubator was off and this went on for two wks until power was restored. She said that those eggs DID hatch. She said those chicks hatched about 2 wks later than they would have under normal condidtions but they did hatch and she said they weren't weak and sickly as you might expect them to be. Anyway, I found that story to be truly amazing! Her story made my experience seem like nothing! She said mother nature gives the eggs more ability to survive than we think. She said that over the years she has seen many "stupid" hens apparently forget that they had a batch of eggs to sit on and would go roost with the rest of the flock overnight or even longer before they "remembered" they had eggs to take care of! These eggs would still hatch!
Since my experience and what she told me, I no longer worry about eggs getting a little cool in the small amount of time it takes to candle them or for short power outages which has happened a few times since. I once rushed my incubator out to the car the moment power went out to plug into the adapter. Power ended up being out just 30 minutes. I wouldn't do that now. I just cover the incubators with blankets and wait it out. Granted I would never want another outage or to find my incubator unplugged but things do happen beyond our control and I just want to say that in my case, everything still turned out ok. Since my experience, incubating is a little stressful since I learned not to worry about everything so much!
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I'm right at the change-over between forest and flats...a true mosquitoes paradise (for the mosquitoes).
