Day 18 egg under hen, very small chick in egg.

[Debbie292d]

I've read that smaller eggs can hatch faster than larger eggs. When I tried it in an incubator by marking the eggs and keeping track of when they hatched I did not see any difference due to size. These were all dual purpose hens but some were pullet eggs so fairly small compared to the larger hen eggs.

@Debbie292d hatches Silkies, which lay smaller eggs. You continually read on here that the smaller Silkie eggs will consistently hatch 2 or more days early. If I remember right Debbie has not had that experience.

Different things can cause eggs to be early or late, even if they are treated similarly. Heredity can be one. Since yours have different parents I'd think heredity is more likely than egg size. But that's just me thinking. We know what that's worth.

I do a 5-day lockdown rather than the typical 3 days for regular chickens. These are all silkies and whilst most go the full 21 days, there are so many exceptions.

Once I had a chick pip on Day 18. Many times I've had chicks pipping AND hatching on Day 19. That seems popular more with shipped eggs than with my own though. Most of the time they start pipping on Day 19 or 20, and all are hatched by Day 21.