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Fertile eggs can usually survive several hours without power, and early-incubation embryos often survive up to about 12–18 hours of cooling to room temperature, though fewer will hatch. Keep the lid closed, wrap the incubator in blankets without covering the vents, and never add heat that could overheat the eggs or start a fire. When power returns, resume normal settings and expect the hatch 1–2 days late.
How long can eggs survive without heat?
Longer than most people fear. Eggs cool slowly, and an embryo's development simply slows or pauses as it cools; it doesn't stop at the first degree lost. Early-incubation embryos can often survive several hours, frequently up to around 12–18 hours, of cooling to room temperature. The hatch rate drops the longer and colder the outage, but a short outage of an hour or two rarely makes a visible difference.
What eggs tolerate badly is overheating. Even a few hours several degrees too hot can do more damage than a night at room temperature. That is why the safest response to an outage is usually to insulate and wait, not to improvise a heat source.
Does the stage of incubation matter?
Yes. Embryos in the first week tolerate cooling best, because they are small and their metabolism is slow. Late-stage embryos, in the last week or so (see the day-by-day calendar), are larger, more active and need more oxygen, so a long chill is harder on them. The flip side is that late-stage eggs produce some heat of their own, so a well-insulated, full incubator cools more slowly near hatch than in week one.
During lockdown, the bigger risk of an outage is often what people do about it. Opening the lid to check on pipping eggs lets humidity crash and can shrink-wrap chicks in drying membranes. Keep it closed.
What to do right away when the power goes out
- Keep the lid closed. The incubator holds heat and humidity far better shut than open. Note the time the power went out.
- Insulate it. Wrap the incubator in thick blankets, towels or a sleeping bag, or set it inside a larger box or cooler with the lid propped. Leave the air vents uncovered so the eggs still get oxygen.
- Move to the warmest safe room if the house is cooling. An interior room away from exterior walls and windows holds heat longest.
- Don't improvise high heat. Never set the incubator near an open flame, a wood stove or a fireplace, and never push a space heater up against a plastic incubator. Plastic can melt or ignite, and the eggs can overheat far faster than they would ever cool.
- Skip turning. A few hours without turning does little harm. Keeping the lid closed matters more.
Carbon monoxide danger: run generators outdoors only, well away from doors and windows, never in a house, basement or attached garage. The same goes for running a car to power an inverter. No hatch is worth that risk.
Can you use hot-water bottles to keep eggs warm?
Yes, carefully, for a long outage. Fill hot-water bottles or sealed jars with hot tap water, not boiling water, and wrap each in a towel. Place them in the incubator or in a cooler with the eggs so they do not touch the eggs, and keep a thermometer at egg height. The goal is to slow cooling, not to recreate 99.5°F. If the reading climbs above 100°F, move the bottles further away or remove one. Swap bottles every few hours as they cool.
What backup power works for an incubator?
Most small tabletop incubators draw roughly 25–80 W, but check the label on yours. That number is the maximum while the heater runs; the average draw is lower because the heater cycles on and off. Three common backups:
- Portable power station or UPS. Silent and safe indoors. For a rough runtime, multiply the battery's watt-hours by 0.85 and divide by the incubator's watts. A 500 Wh station running a 50 W incubator gives about 8 hours. A typical computer UPS has a much smaller battery and may last well under an hour.
- Inverter on a car battery. A pure sine wave inverter is the safer choice for incubators with digital controllers. Run the vehicle outdoors only, and only long enough to keep the battery charged.
- Generator. Handles long outages and can power the brooder too. Outdoors only, with a heavy-duty extension cord rated for outdoor use.
What to do when the power comes back
Let the incubator recover on its own at its normal settings. Don't raise the thermostat to "catch up". Embryos can't make up lost time, and a temporary overshoot does more harm than the outage did. Once it settles, confirm 99.5°F with your second thermometer at egg height. Settings for every species are in our hatching settings chart.
- Resume turning on the normal schedule if you are before lockdown.
- Candle in 2–3 days to look for quitters: a blood ring, or an embryo that looks the same as before and has no visible movement or veins. Remove eggs that have clearly died before they spoil. Our candling guide shows what healthy development looks like at each stage.
- Keep your lockdown date by the calendar (the hatch date calculator lists it), but expect the hatch to run 1–2 days late. For chickens, wait until at least day 23 and candle stragglers before giving up on them.
If the hatch is disappointing, our hatching troubleshooting guide helps separate outage losses from other causes.
Power outage preparation checklist
A little preparation before you set eggs turns an outage from a crisis into a minor event:
- Read your incubator's wattage on the label and note it with your hatch records.
- Keep a separate battery-powered thermometer, ideally with a min/max memory, in the incubator.
- Set aside two or three thick blankets or a sleeping bag near the incubator.
- Keep two hot-water bottles or large jars and a cooler where you can find them in the dark.
- Have a flashlight or headlamp near the incubator, plus a charged phone for the time log.
- If you use a power station or UPS, test it with the incubator running before you set eggs.
- If you have a generator, test-start it and keep an outdoor-rated extension cord ready.
- Sign up for outage alerts from your power company if they offer them.
- Write your set date and lockdown date on the incubator so anyone helping knows the stage.
Frequently asked questions
Will my eggs die if the incubator loses power for a few hours?
Probably not. Eggs tolerate cooling far better than overheating, and an outage of a few hours usually causes little or no visible loss. Early-stage embryos can often survive up to about 12–18 hours at room temperature, though the hatch rate drops as outages get longer and colder.
Should I open the incubator during a power outage?
No. A closed incubator holds heat and humidity much longer than an open one. Wrap it in blankets with the vents uncovered, note the time, and wait. Open it only if you are moving eggs into a warmer insulated box, and do it quickly.
How many watts does an egg incubator use?
Most small tabletop incubators are rated at roughly 25–80 W, shown on the label or power adapter. The heater cycles on and off, so average use is lower than the rating. Large cabinet incubators draw considerably more, so check the label before choosing backup power.
Will the eggs hatch late after a power outage?
Often, yes. Cooling slows development, so a long outage can push the hatch 1–2 days past the usual date. Keep lockdown on schedule, don't raise the temperature to compensate, and candle any eggs that haven't hatched before discarding them.
Is it safe to put the incubator near a space heater?
Only with care. A space heater can warm the room, but keep it several feet from the incubator and anything flammable, and never point it straight at the plastic. Watch an egg-height thermometer closely, because overheating harms embryos faster than cooling does.