Saturday April 19th we woke up to snow! A lot of snow.
Our power went off and my first thought was for the eggs in the incubator and the chicks out side still needing the heat lamp.
I brought the chick in to the house and covered them with newspaper to help keep the heat in them.
Rob said he had to go to work in spite of the weather and said he would take the incubator with him and plug it in at work. We wrapped it in blankets and he put the heat on in his van.
Because our power was off for 12 hours he decided the incubator was best left at work until the next day.
The roads were clear on Sunday and I went to a farm auction in the morning. Although tempted by some of the things that I saw I didn't bid on or buy anything.
I stopped at a friends on the way home and picked up 2 doz Black Australorp eggs to put in the incubator. I also had 12 more Guinea fowl eggs to add to the 5 already in there.
We got the incubator home and plugged it in. I added the new eggs even though the heat wasn't up to the correct temperature yet. It was just over 80 degrees and I knew it would reach the required 99.5 in no time.
I kept checking it and the temp didn't move. I turned the thermostat up a little but still no change. I turned it a little more and the waffle fell off inside the incubator lid!
Rob and I both tried to fix it, no luck.
A friend suggested using a heating pad. I put the pad over the eggs and put the lid back on the incubator.
Next time I checked the temp had risen to 120!
After fiddling a bit more and leaving the lid slightly open the temp is steady at just over 100.
I would think the eggs are totally shot after all that but I can't bring my self to chuck them. It will be nothing less than a miracle if anything hatches but I will leave then until their hatching date just to be sure. After all, I do believe in miracles.