[Anke]

I have 12 goose eggs in the incubator - due to hatch May 19th (day 32) to probably May 22nd (day 35). Got a letter today telling us that electricity will be off all day on may 21st... All our neighbours will be off too, as they are replacing some of the poles nearby.

So how can I rescue my hatch? Not only need electricity for the incubator but also for heat lamp... Can't cover incubtor with hot waterbottle and towels as I have done before, as I need to open periodically and peep in. The incubator is not very high and goslings will have to be removed quickly as they tend to bang their heads on the top and also disturb the other eggs.

And no we don't have a generator on standby.

Any suggestions?

[bloomer]

call them now, tell them you have incubators running they should loan you a generator!!!


make a real nuisance of yourself explain the eggs are valuable etc...

[jaykay]

Dad tried that and since hatching eggs wasn't his business, but a hobby, they wouldn't help.

However, you can hire generators, and it might well be worth it for just that day. I'd get in quick though, since there'll be quite a demand for them! Or Aldi/Argos etc sell them - I've got an Aldi one which does the job, as we get plenty of power cuts and I'm always worried it will be when I've got some small creatures under a heat lamp.

[Fleecewife]

Might your incubator run off a car or tractor battery?

[chrismahon]

We can run our incubator very easily off a car battery and inverter Anke. You will have to run the car for a bit to charge it though. Really you should have all this stuff in place before you start hatching because the power can go down anytime in a hatch.

[Anke]

We have located a generator (which incidentally could power our whole house ) nearby, and hopefully that solves the problem. It needed a trailer to get it from neighbours house to ours and is incredibly noisy, OH cleaned it out yesterday and started it up. Let's hope some goslings are going to hatch after all this...

Maybe we should get one of our own at some point, but in general our house is set up that we can survive quite well for a few days without electricity...

[Cluckinggoodpoultry]

Glad you have located one but I had the same problem a number of times with the electricity company and they provided a generator, I made them basically even though I have one here but it wouldn't run everything needed. Told them I would send them a bill for the lost rare breed eggs and birds as well if they didn't provide one. Had another friend that had a long power cut and lost her eggs and she was compensated by the electricity company!