You can never be too prepared for a disaster, natural or otherwise. I thought I was prepared…plenty of fresh water, batteries, and a backup generator to power all my Herp areas and essentials. However…unless your generator is somehow covered (mine is not), it’s pretty much useless in the middle of a hurricane…and if you have eggs in the incubator, like I did…all you can do is wait out the storm to bring systems back on line…right…!…? WRONG…!
I am fortunate to own both the 100qt and 48qt Chondro incubators (good for all Herp eggs) made by Jim Avey. And…the 48qt version is built to work on both regular house current and 12 volt = that which powers your car…!! So… Last night our power went out at 8PM as Hurricane Isabel threw 75mph winds and rain at the Washington, D.C. area. Meanwhile, I was huddled up comfy in my van along with my 48qt Chondrobator and a clutch of eggs due out next week… And all was well with the world.
This morning I awoke to see havoc around me unlike anything I’ve ever seen before… Trees and branches down everywhere with over 2,000,000 in the area without power…and many folks were also without phone service and drinking water. I went about the business of powering up my generator but decided to leave my eggs set up in my Avey incubator in the van – just because I could…! Later my wife wanted to use the vehicle so I somewhat reluctantly moved my eggs back indoors (the nerve of her).
I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have this portable incubator…! In all my years as a professional reptile breeder I’d have to say this piece of equipment is one of those rare finds that pays off when nothing else will. I can’t say enough good things about these incubators…but I will be giving it my best shots in the months ahead as I put these machines through my rigid testing. Meanwhile…if you’ve been thinking of investing in a quality incubator I would encourage you to look seriously at the line of Avey Incubator products…!…TW
