Incubating Bantam and Full Size Chickens together

[chanceosunshine]

Does anyone do this and have advice regarding it? I've never incubated any eggs and I'd like to save eggs from my super star layer. I thought I'd add some Batam eggs instead of only incubating a few eggs at a time. Is this ok? If so do I change the "lockdown" time?
Thanks

 

[Silexian]

I do this all the time. Bantam eggs take 21 days to hatch also. Lockdown is the same as always. Just like any hatch, there may be one or two that are overly excited. That decide they are going to make their entrance early.

 

[chanceosunshine]

I do this all the time. Bantam eggs take 21 days to hatch also. Lockdown is the same as always. Just like any hatch, there may be one or two that are overly excited. That decide they are going to make their entrance early.

Thank you! Can you tell me what day you lock your incubator down? I've heard that you should take them out of the turner at 14 days and then lock down, but then I heard 16 for bantam and 18 for other chickens.
The internet is full of so much information...too much information???

 

[Silexian]

I lockdown on day 18. That is not to say, that when I have went to turn off the turner. Only to discover an already hatched chick. It is on rare occasion, but it can and does happen. Mixed batch or not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, way too much information. I can contribute to that by giving "why" to a lot of these things. But the simple answer is lock down after 18 days of incubation.

An egg doesn't have a day's worth of incubation 2 seconds after it goes in the incubator, it takes 24 hours for it to have a day's worth of incubation. So when you start counting the days wait until the day after you start them before you say "1". An easy way to check your counting is that the day of the week you set them is the day of the week the 21 days is up. If they go in the incubator on a Friday the 21 days is up on a Friday. If you count that right then you have counted the 18 days right.

Now for too much information. You do not have to turn the eggs after 14 days of incubation. By then you've gained the advantages of turning. It will not hurt to keep turning them, it's just that you don't have too. Some eggs pip and hatch earlier than others, sometimes quite a bit earlier or later. Part of lockdown is increasing the humidity before the eggs external pip to help avoid shrink-wrapping. Since some eggs can pip or even hatch two days early you up the humidity after 18 days to cover this time of uncertainly. The reason we do everything at the same time is that it is convenient to do both.

To show how critical it is to get perfect timing (not) many people miscount the days and lockdown a full day early. They usually get great hatches too.

I've read that smaller eggs don't take as long as larger eggs. I haven't tried that with bantam eggs but I have checked hatch time on my smaller and larger eggs. No difference.

My eggs tend to pip and hatch two full days early, whether in an incubator or under a broody hen. I blame that on heredity not improper incubation.

I told you I could contribute to too much information. Good luck!

 

[chanceosunshine]

Thank you both!

I'm looking for reliable information that comes with experience. I'm glad that's available here and that you all are willing to share.