Advice on staggered hatch?

[SpinningJenny]

TL;DR - I've got 20ish eggs due May 2 and 2 due April 24th and one incubator. How do I do lockdown for three days for the two eggs, while the other 20ish are still in there needing the turner going? I thought about taking out 2 rails of the turner, so they have some hatching space, or building a hatcher of some sort. What would the experts advise here? What can I do about increasing the humidity for the 2 on lockdown but not "drowning the others"

Here's the longer story: on April 4, I set 30 eggs in a Hove Bator with auto turner. That night, one exploded. (It had been collected a few days earlier, had a hairline crack, and even though it was set aside, someone absent mindedly put it in with the good eggs. HORK) SO - all eggs came out, everything sterilized. On April 10 I candled and - nothing. 2 eggs had something going on, so I left them in just in case, and I opened the rest. They didn't even have veining, although they were fertile. So I'm going to chalk those up to that bacteria bomb that went off, and the subsequent cooling off while the 'bator was being cleaned. (I wish this on no one. It was HORRIBLE. The stench.)

So, on April 11, I set 30 more eggs. NOW I've got 20 developing for sure, 7 I can't quite tell yet and one dud that I caught before we had another incident thank gods. But now I'm presented with the situation of having 2 eggs that will hatch a week before the others.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It isn't ideal but is doable.
The 20 will have been turned 12 days by the 22nd. I would wait for lockdown till the 22nd or 23rd. Continue turning as long as there are no pips in the 2. By that point, 2 days of not turning shouldn't hurt.
Go ahead and raise the humidity. Two or three days high humidity won't hurt the other eggs. More important than a precise humidity number is weight loss throughout.
If it rains, a hen can't control the humidity any more than she can raise humidity in an arid environment.

 

[SpinningJenny]

It isn't ideal but is doable.
The 20 will have been turned 12 days by the 22nd. I would wait for lockdown till the 22nd or 23rd. Continue turning as long as there are no pips in the 2. By that point, 2 days of not turning shouldn't hurt.
Go ahead and raise the humidity. Two or three days high humidity won't hurt the other eggs. More important than a precise humidity number is weight loss throughout.
If it rains, a hen can't control the humidity any more than she can raise humidity in an arid environment.

Good point about the humidity. So you're saying when the first two pip, then stop turning the others for a day and let those hatch? Then resume turning for the last 9 days?

That sounds like a good plan. THanks for thinking it thru with me!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That's right. Turning nearer the beginning is most critical. I don't think it will hurt them to stop turning for a day or two.
I thought I had a failed batch once due to wide temp swings from 92-108. So I gave up on them and put fresh eggs under a broody. I had only turned the incubator eggs the first week and abandoned them. Lo and behold, two chicks hatched in spite of not turning the last 10+ days and the wide temp swings.

You may find this interesting.
http://www.poultryworld.net/Eggs/Articles/2017/5/Turning-frequency-during-incubation-137498E/