Hurricane - Possible Power Outage

It has been a while since I have posted. We have moved into our new apartment and finally got internet set up.

Well Hurricane Irene is chugging up the coast and with the possibility of power outages, I'm worried about the eggs in my incubator. One clutch is 5 or so days from their hatch date. We actually experienced a power outage last week due to some confusion with the power company. But we got it back on that night. I'm not sure how long the power was out but the incubator dropped to about 75. I checked all of the eggs and every single baby out of 9 eggs are still moving and all eggs have great veins.

The first clutch, again, is around 5 days from their hatch date. They are dented and I am eagerly awaiting their hatching. The second clutch is about 3 weeks from hatching. If the power goes out for more than a few hours, what might happen to the eggs. I have already learned this season that ball python eggs can survive a lot but more than a few hours of no heat is probably not something they will survive easily. With the first clutch, with them being so close to hatching, would they experience any problems due to lowered temps in the incubator? How about the 2nd clutch.

Any advice would be great. I do have small heat packs but we found they didn't do much for the eggs when our power was shut off last week.

im in the same boat as you have my clutch hatching in 5 days and 3 weeks for the other clutch hopefully they will make it alright and the hurricane doesnt mess up the power dont want to lose my eggs considering its my first season and i know you wouldnt either

Yea, I've been looking forward to these babies, so I've got my fingers crossed. I hope yours make it through the hurricane alright. :)

thanks same to u i would just try not to open the incubator if u do lose power i know i would hate to live in jersey because they are gonna be without power for 2-3 days the only thing i can think of is run hot water on towels and stick them in the box with the eggs of fill a bucket up with hot water and see what happens with that i have hot water bottles in mine now so hopefully we both wont lose power to long like jersey

My plan if I lose power is to take one of my 48 hour shipping heat packs and place it on the bottom shelf of the incubator and monitor the internal temps with a battery powered thermometer. (doubt I'll have much else to do besides monitor the temps if the power goes out ><).

Hope you guys don't loose power. I hope we dont either.

I read somewhere, I believe on VPI's website that they had a power outage for a couple of days due to a hurricane and the eggs were just fine. Hopefully, everything works out and power outages are minimal so you dont have to find out the hard way.

I'm pretty sure I remember in one of Tim Bailey's threads he talked about something going wrong with the incubator, and the eggs turned out fine. Sorry I don't remember for sure if it was a power outage or what. You could probably do a search on his threads and find it.

I don't remember what kind of incubator you have, but what I'd do is figure out ways to insulate it in case the power does go out, to keep the temps as stable as possible. Like putting blankets over it or something similar. If it has glass doors or any similar obvious weak place in the insulation, considering covering those areas up in advance.

Hope the hurricane passes you by and this all becomes moot.

After our tornado I thought that was the end of crappy luck til winter so I put off buying a generator. Now I can't get it. It's almost time so good luck to everyone, see u on the other side

get a bunch of big hand warmers shake some up some and stick em in the bater. Monitor temps so you kno if you have to take away or give another.

Hey Jay! You know if your clutch has a problem you should always save them in the freeze for me!

But here's hoping you have no trouble!
What do they do at your work if the power goes out? Is there someone there to care for the animals?

I actually have no idea what they would do at Petsmart to keep the animals well if the power were to go out. We didn't have any hurricanes hit Virginia last year so I didn't get to experience power outages with Petsmart.

Actually, I don't work at Petsmart anymore. Along with a new apartment, I have a new job. I'm making twice what I was making at Petsmart. :D

Great! :D

If your apartment has a patio or balcony, get a small gas generator. It only has be to be large enough to power your incubator, after all!

If it doesn't, then consider a UPS designed for computer systems. Some UPS systems will keep a computer running for several hours--an incubator should be no problem.

If the power is going to be out longer than that, you may need to locate friends who have power, and transport the incubator there.

I had some eggs in an incubator that went through a fire. They got heated to about 110 degrees and then dropped to 64 degrees for about 7 hours. After I got them in a back up incubator the thermostat malfunctioned and they spent a day at 97 degrees. One clutch hatched just fine a week later. The other clutch was only 3 weeks in. They all hatched fine but 2 of them were small and never got the hang of eating.

Hope everything turns out okay for you. I suggest a power inverter for your car and a cooler with some heat tape in the bottom so you can drive them somewhere with power.

Man, if my power went out right now my house would get WAY TOO HOT for any incubating eggs... must be nice to have the opposite problem. :D In all seriousness... I hope you make it thru OK!

Dealing with heat is actually MUCH easier--just use cool water or ice.