lecky blues

Well I am having a disastrous start to the week. My electricity supply cut out midday yesterday and has only come back online about the same time today (yup just over 24 hours!!!). They had to dig up a piece of road to replace a cable this time around.

I had a few eggs in my DIY incubator, which I tried to keep warm but I only succeeded in cooking by candle light (I fell asleep in my vigil). I also lost 2 little Japanese chicks that managed to hatch despite the last power cut during their incubation. 5 little ones left with 2 mongrel silkie chicks that hatched a few days ago. I kept them in my T-shirt for a while, but I was worried about crushing them accidentally overnight. So I kept warming bottles of water to keep them warm (thank goodness I have gas supply, but my heating/hot water is electronically controlled).

I've also lost track of how many of my topical fish have succumbed during these power outages. It just depresses me to look at my aquariums at the moment. My fish are not very happy.

I have had so many of these poweroutages now, that I'm now seriously thinking the only way I can continue hatching quails is thru natural incubation and brooding using bantams.

p.s. does anyone know how I can claim compensation from electricity outage? I must be due something from all this. It will never replace all I've lost or compensate for the aggravation, but maybe I can buy something to cheer me up

p.p.s. my fridge freezer is now beeping at me. Hmmm, gotta throw away everything in it. It stinks!

Hi Andy,

I'm not even sure you could make a claim over livestock and incubating eggs etc, you may have to take out insurance.

If I was you, I'd be looking into buying a small generator, they are simple to use and can be rigged up to come on automatically.

As for using broody hens?, unless they are a really small lightweight bird, I would not even concider using them, even to hatch out quail eggs.

Other method's of brooding small chicks include gas heat lamps,(you can buy gas bottles) also a bit more dangerious Parrafin heaters (These worked fine years ago, can't see why they can't these days)
Sometimes on ebay, you often come accross parrafin incubators that go for very little money, but they tend to be big and bulky and heavy.

Just a few suggestion to keep you going.

Derek.

ok, well I found this....

http://energywatch-ext.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energywatch_ext.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1510

So looks like I'm entitled to £50 apparently. Not a lot really! and I have still have to contact them for it, they don't give it automatically.

I know contents insurance doesn't usually cover the cost of aquarium fish, incubating eggs or even freezer food. If it did, then premiums would be prohibitive.

Derek, I was thinking bantam Silkies or bantam Pekins. How feasible is it to use these on a regular basis?

Another option is to rig my incubators against a battery. I know most of them require 12volt DC supply (the plugs usually incorporate AC/DC adaptor). So just have to figure out a suitable battery. I could probably do something similar with brooders and low heat emitters on an electric hen type design.

Well if one of my Serama goes broody perhaps I'll try some quail eggs under her Andoy. They really are tiny birds. If I do mange to hatch some of my own I could swop one for a gorgeous duckie.

Hmmm, funny you mentioned Seramas Harrie. I "accidentally" bought some silkied Seramas I'm planning to soundproof a little shed for the cocks. I'm wondering if I should keep the incubator at OH's appartment

Do they make good broodies? Seems a shame to make them raise something else's eggs as they are quite nice birds.

You can have some my lil 'ucklings if I get some next year

Dutch or Sebrights can be used to hatch quail, silkies or pekings can be a wee bit big and crush eggs and chicks.

One of my friends took me out to a new comedy musical last night to cheer me up from my lecky blues. It's a new show called Eurobeat, a sort of homage to the Eurovision. A bit of a cross between panto, musical, and comical farce. Needless to say, the "brotherhood of Dorothy" were well represented in the audience and pandered to by the acts. It wasn't intelligent humour, but just what the doctor ordered.

I just got a letter from EDF Energy saying I'm not entitled to compensation for my 24 hour power outage! The cheek of it

Their rational is that a neighbour complained about the amount of noise the engineers were making at midnight. The power went down at 13:00 and engineers turned up at 21:00 and stopped working at midnight. The engineers returned at about 10am the following day (so they are excluding the hours from midnight to 10am).

Anyway, I phoned energy watch to check if this is a valid excuse and have been told that EDF Energy can not exclude this time. There are no exclusions in the customer compensation.

I wish I kept a record of all the power outages I've had. I'm sure I'm due loads more compensation. I'm tempted to leaflet my road and neighbours to claim compensation.

Yes I think you should spread the word these companies get away with enough just shows they can tell you any thing and hope you go away. so good on you for not taking their word about it.

he he... just got a voice mail from them

out of the interest of customer relations (and the goodness of our hearts) we are sending you £50 compensation

…nothing of course to do with with the fact that energy watch have said there are "no exclusions in the 18 hour power interruption rule."

I'm still going to rally the neighbours to act. Hopefully, if it costs them money, they'll look into why we are getting so many interruptions and rectify it!!!

That's a good idea Andoy - hit them where it hurts. Wow that is a long time without leccy - don't know how I'd cope. We do occasionallty have short power cuts due to overhead cables but these are rarely more than 10 mins and we are out in the sticks so be interesting to know what is causing your blackouts.

dunno Harrie, improperly maintaining and inspecting substations/relays? or just incompetence?

Just read this article about a scary incident around about the same time I lost power... "Smoke and Sparks after power surge"

Though it was quite nearby, I wasn't affected by this particular incident (or perhaps I was affected indirectly by the surge damaging some cables, who knows... they aren't exactly going to admit their mistakes), but I'm pretty sure a power surge is what has damaged my incubator a couple of months ago. I've got so many surge control sockets now!

I would pursue the claim from the electric company stating that you checked it out and not allowing the hours from midnight to 10am is not an excuse.

I would also look at getting a second hand generator and look at the prices of 12v lights then you can run your brooder on an old car battery.
It worth looking at.

Jo