Hatching Bantam and Standard Eggs TOGETHER

[CalBickieMomma]

Hello wonderful chicken people!

I'll be hatching a few standard breed eggs (Olive Eggers - the lady I'm getting the eggs from has Marans, Cream Legbars, and Ameraucanas) for a school project (we are going to be building a coop/run and have a few chickens at school). I also want to hatch a few Serama eggs with these ones (I'll probably put 4-5 Serama eggs in with the 6 or so standard eggs) and wanted to know the best method in doing so to have a successful hatch.

Should I put all the eggs in at the same time, OR should I let the standard eggs incubate for two days, then add in the Serama eggs (so that the lockdown day aligns for all the eggs)? I hatched Serama and Serama/OEGB cross eggs last year and they hatched out on Day 19, so I'm assuming these Serama eggs will have the same sort of time frame.

I'm not super worried if some eggs hatch out a day or two later/sooner than the others. I'm mostly worried about the turning mechanism shutting off and the change in humidity level for the Serama eggs happening too late in their development if it aligns with eggs hatching out on Day 21 vs Day 19. Or does it not really matter that late in development? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

- Jenna

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi Jenna,

You could maybe try staggering by one day. That'd be closer in case they don't actually hatch in 19 days. I hatch silkies that are often 19 days, but supposed to be 21, so know what you mean.

Otherwise, just put them all in and if you have to open the incubator up day 19 to get the Seramas out, hopefully the others won't have pipped yet. That few minutes drop in humidity won't hurt them. Best case scenario, they all pip on Day 20.

 

[CalBickieMomma]

Hi Jenna,

You could maybe try staggering by one day. That'd be closer in case they don't actually hatch in 19 days. I hatch silkies that are often 19 days, but supposed to be 21, so know what you mean.

Otherwise, just put them all in and if you have to open the incubator up day 19 to get the Seramas out, hopefully the others won't have pipped yet. That few minutes drop in humidity won't hurt them. Best case scenario, they all pip on Day 20.

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not super worried if some eggs hatch out a day or two later/sooner than the others. I'm mostly worried about the turning mechanism shutting off

The reasons you turn them is to help the body parts to develop in the right places, to keep the yolk or developing embryo from settling to touch the inside of the porous eggshell where it could become stuck, and to help certain "fluids" to get where they need to go. Body parts form pretty early, a membrane develops to protect the embryo/chick from touching the inside of the eggshell, and the fluids issue has been resolved by Day 14 of incubation. You are not going to hurt the hatch by stopping turning a few days early. The main reason we wait is more convenience than need, to coincide with humidity issues.

and the change in humidity level

This one is a bit more complicated. The egg needs to lose moisture so the chick can hatch. Nature was kind enough to give us a fairly large window that works but if it does not lose enough or loses too much you can have issues. Many people miscount and lock down a full day early and the eggs still hatch fine. It is a fairly large window. How much moisture they lose during incubation will depend on your humidity levels in the incubator and how long they are at that humidity level. Some eggs are stored longer than others before incubation starts so they have already lost moisture before you even start. Some eggs are more porous than others or have differences so even in the same conditions they lose a different amount of moisture during incubation. Maybe to demonstrate how big that window is, a hen will lay eggs in a hidden nest for two weeks or so before she starts incubating them so some have already lost a lot of moisture before the last egg is even laid.

What you want is to increase the humidity before you get your first external pip. When they external pip you can lose a lot of moisture and get shrink-wrapped eggs if you open the incubator. My full-sized eggs often hatch one or even two full days early in my incubator or under a broody hen. I think that is due to heredity. Sometimes they are on time.

With your history with those bantam eggs and I assume that incubator I'd go into full lockdown mode on Day 17, stop turning and increase the humidity. I think that gives you your best shot at a successful hatch.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.