Long Power Outage

[Tiffydawn777]

I have 7 eggs in my incubator that were supposed to hatch 1-2 days ago. We are in middle Tennessee and lost power for almost 3 days while my eggs were on day 18. I immediately wrapped my incubator in towels but after the 2nd day there was no more heat in there and the temperature was 45-55° for at least 20-30 hours.....I have read some amazing stories about chicks still hatching after losing power in the cold. I am just curious how long I should leave these eggs in the incubator before I let them go?
Day 18- lost power
Day 21-power restored
Temps-below 55° for 20-30 hours
Day 22- that is today and no pips, no rocking, ..............no chirping.
Thanks for any advise!

 

[Carter Martin]

I doubt that they will hatch. But you could leave them in till about day 25 to be sure. If they have any chance I think that by day 25 any that have not hatched probably will not. I have not experienced this before so I don't know for sure how it should be handled. For me, in normal incubating conditions, I don't think any chicks have hatched after day 23.

 

[Kiki]

Have you candled them?
Can you post clear candling pictures... Pictures you take while you're in a dark room?

 

[Tiffydawn777]

These aren’t the best pics, I was trying to do this quickly to prevent any further trauma.....

 

[Kiki]

Sorry, they do not look good.
I would leave them in the incubator for a few more days just to be 100% sure.
It is possible that one or more may actually hatch but don't get your hopes up.

 

[AHotchick]

Hi, I'm sorry for your power outages! But here's the story i came to post today... I've decided I'm simply not cut out for incubating - it stresses me out thinking about all those little ones. After 4 days of waiting after the last chick hatched, I turned off the bator yesterday. & Today I wanted to do autopsy's to see how far along they had come... so I took them in a bag outside and after about 8 of them i started being less careful - there were 3 classifications - dud, early problem & late death... oh and STILL ALIVE! I did crack the outer shell - and raced inside after it started chirping (because i just hit it on a rock in the snow). Summary: Maybe wait a little bit longer with it on. I'm heartbroken and now watching a partially opened egg in an incubator... I'm sure it wont make it but I'm just sad.

 

[coach723]

Last summer I had a broody get off the nest on day 18 and was off for hours before I noticed. Only two hatched, one only survived 24 hours, it was very weak. The rest were all fully formed, but did not hatch, died in the shell. So as others have said, I'd wait to see if maybe you get lucky with one or two, but I also wouldn't get hopes up too much. So sorry.

 

[Weeg]

Use hand warmers. Do you have any hand warmers you can put in the bator to help keep them warm? Put the warmers right over the eggs.

 

[als77]

Coturnix Corner recently posted a video on youtube about this exact issue. He had a drop in temperature (don't remember the exact details) and had some survivors. He found an article about "Lundy's Five Incubation Temperature Zones";
>40.5C/104.9F = Zone of heat injury
>35C/95F = Zone of hatching potential
>27C/80.6F = Zone of disproportionate development
>-2C/28.4F (!) = Zone of suspended development
<-2C/28.4F = Zone of cold injury

So no reason to give up on them until you know all hope is lost

 

[Tiffydawn777]

Thank you all! I will try to remember to update this thread with what happens....I did go get these little ones just in case I do have a single baby hatch....just to be clear, my eggs have NOT hatched, YET, still hoping they do but I did find these babies at Rural King