It's not quite a disaster, but I have had to give it a great deal of thought. When I ordered my Sablepoot eggs from South Yeo Farm in Devon I thought I had planned the timing perfectly. The eggs would hatch a week before Easter and mean that a friend could easily look after them for the couple of days that I am away. That was on the basis that Good Friday was on the 25 April. I've no idea why I thought Easter was that late, and I only discovered my error when in work and the subject of holidays arose.
Normally it would not really matter and rightly or wrongly I have left eggs in an incubator whilst away before, just for a few days. But that was well before lock down and hatching. Timing could not be worse this time. The hatching date of the sablepoots is Friday 18th. The planned date I am leaving.
What to do? Hope they hatch early? Leave them for a friend to look after? Well there is only one thing to do. Take the incubator with me.
I have bought a cheap inverter for the car. It plugs into the 12v supply and converts to 220v with a socket for the mains plug.
Sounds crazy, but the incubator will be in the boot whilst I drive and I can set up the incubator and brooder in the caravan when we get there. Mad? Maybe but it will be fun to see what happens. And it won't be the first time I have taken the brooder away in the caravan. I did the same last year with a hatch of quail. They all turned out fine. Although they were a week old before we took them away.
I will let you know how the journey goes and how the eggs fair especially as they are at the pipping stage whilst traveling. I will need to make sure the eggs are stable in the incubator so they don't roll around and crack. I may have to leave the dividers in for traveling or, maybe use some egg boxes to set the eggs in, just while we travel.
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