o/t hatching chicken eggs?

had them in the incubator for 12 days the power went off for 6 hours the temp dropped to 75 degrees will they still hatch or should I start over?

Where did you get the temp reading from? The surrounding air can be cool, but the eggs internally can still hold a lot of heat. That being said, in my case I would probably toss them and try again but not knowing your circumstances I really couldn"t say. Did you buy the eggs, or do you have a regular supply daily from your laying hens?

the temp was inside the incubator and yes I do have the eggs from my hens

You are about halfway thru the incubating process. I guess it's kind of a crapshoot at this point. If you will have more fertile eggs coming on I'd give it a couple of weeks and see. You can always start over. If your egg source is limited I'd think about starting over now.

Yep, just as Paul said above then....probably a crapshoot. Probably best to toss and start over tomorrow! Oh, and send the bill to the power company for the loss of hatching eggs. No doubt they will deduct it from your next utility bill. Hahaha, yea right.....wishfull thinking...

Keep them going. One time, most of the eggs hatched after they were cool for 24 hours. Good luck.

You never know for sure. I lost 42 eggs not long ago due to a lose of power for about 3 hours but if I had done a cover over the incubator I may have saved them. I have a number of them back in now and hope they hatch this time but one never knows for sure. Also the last bunch I did I had a problem keeping the temp as it should have been but this time it is staying at the 99.5 that it should be

I think they will be alright but I am no expert. you might try posting your question on backyard chickens forum and see what kind of answer they give. they have a lot of information there. here is the address: http://www.backyardchickens.com/



frank

I would keep them hatching, you are halfway there. [allowing for late hatching] They are resilient little fellas .

I just had the exact same thing happen. About half of them hatched yesterday, so I wouldn"t give up.

Keep things going, some will hatch, You can always set another batch after you are done with this one...make sure you go a couple days over the recommended time. Some of my late bloomers came just when I wanted to give up and throw the rest out....just in case...

I would keep the heat on them. You will get fewer to hatch but you will still get over half. You will be ahead to go on and see what results you have with what you started. The internal temperature would have been higher than the air temperature of the incubator. The eggs in the center will have a higher hatch rate than those on the edges.

We used to raise a lot of chickens when we first started farming. We had an old homemade incubator that did not keep the evenest temperature. We usually only had a 60-70% hatch rate. After a few years we found a better factory built incubator and the hatch rate went up to the 75-85% rate.

My first wife worked real hard raising them chickens. They provided a lot of meals and pocket money for us in the early years. I can still remember the taste of her pan fried chicken. You can't beat that taste. Those chickens had been running around just hours before.

My current wife will not butcher them any more. Says the sight of them makes her sick. LOL I guess it all depends on how hungry you are.

I can remember catching them for my Grand Mother just minutes before she would have them plucked and in the skillet. By the time I would get the feathers and things cleaned up and washed my hands lunch was ready.

Tough call - the eggs themselves will hold heat for a while so it might not be too bad.

But this far in you should be able to candle them and watch for a heart beat - can be pretty tough to see, but if you see any movement at all in any egg - you know all is not lost.

Let us know how you make out.

What do you have to loose at this point, candle on day 18 and see what you get.

I have a small UPS on my incubator just for this reason. It wont last all day but it should cover and hour or two. Sometimes that just enough.

K