Small flock incubation: setting eggs as you get them, is it feasible?

[rmattise]

As someone who's had smaller flocks of chickens and ducks in the past, I've been curious about setting up a "rolling incubation" schedule of sorts. Usually, the goal is to collect a decent number of eggs, then set them all at once so that they hatch all at once. But what if you only have one or two layers? It'd be difficult to wait for, say, a clutch of more than ten or so eggs, as the fertility would start to suffer after a few days. As such, I was considering how feasible it might be to set eggs as they were laid (or as appropriate).
With this method, it would be necessary to do a few things. First, you'd need to date the eggs so you knew which were due to hatch at any given time. Second, you'd need at least one additional incubator to be used exclusively as a "hatcher" with higher humidity than the incubator itself. Once the eggs reached the last few days of the incubation cycle, they'd need to be moved from the "incubator" to the "hatcher" to complete the hatching process.
Theoretically, the only problem I can see with this approach is with keeping humidity high within the "hatcher." Because you'd need to remove hatched chicks from the hatcher every day or two, you would have to be proactive about restoring humidity levels in it quickly so as not to "shrink-wrap" any chicks. Of course, you would also end up with chicks of varying ages, but unless you were planning to ship them somewhere else, I can't see this as being too much of a problem anyway.
Am I forgetting anything? Has anyone else tried this approach or had any success with it?

 

[nuthatched]

From what I've read, more harm (usually death) is done from too much humidity than too little, which could result in shrink wrapping, which is easy to solve as a problem.
I think eggs can keep for about 1 week or a bit more on the counter, without ill effects, as long as you tilt them often, so you can set them en masse. That's what chickens do.

 

[rmattise]

I suppose you could try to hatch eggs in "spurts" too instead of just setting them as they're laid. For instance, collect eggs from one or two hens for about three days or so, then set all of those at once. Then rinse and repeat. This might alleviate some of the issues with humidity during lockdown too, and hatches might be more predictable.

 

[BGcoop]

since it can take almost a whole day from pip to hatch, I would think setting every other or every third day might be an option to help reduce the risk of shrink wrapping. another thing to think about though would be if you have newborns in with eggs just placed into lockdown you would have to find a way to keep the chicks from knocking into and rolling about the lockdown eggs. Maybe some type of divider?
so yeah, I’d try every three days. That way eggs hatch on one side-eggs locked down on other side, as those are ready to start hatching you put in new ones to be locked down, etc.

 

[aart]

Once the eggs reached the last few days of the incubation cycle, they'd need to be moved from the "incubator" to the "hatcher" to complete the hatching process.

Get a 2nd incubator to use as a hatcher.
Then set your eggs at least a few days apart,
a week might be better to clean up hatcher between batches.

 

[Pyxis]

I set my eggs all the time - best thing to do is as @aart said and get a second incubator to use as a hatcher. That's what I do

Eggs can keep for ten days before they start to decline in fertility, so the easiest thing to do is to save up ten days' worth of eggs, set all those at the same time, then start saving again for the next ten days, etc. You still get overlap though so a second incubator is best.