Simple trick to increase poultry hatch rate | Incubating in the winter 

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Thank you!

someguyinncarolina you're welcome 😊😊

@@someoneinncarolina sir can I clean eggs by sanitizer coz sanitizer also kills bacteria yess.please reply sir😭😭😷🙏🙏🙏

​@@janampariyar581 "Sanitizer" is not a thing, it is many things. I could not make a recommendation based upon that; however, generally I would not recommend anything other than peroxide at the proper dilution.

Goose eggs after 4 days you set it have to make sure to spray with warm water 2 times a day and flip eggs 180 turn . Do better in incubators with fans. Egg should lye on side needs to rotate 4 x a day. Temp should be 100 humidity 55% for goose eggs. Depending on size of egg should hatch day 27 - 32 . If large goose will hatch day 35. lock down day 26 larger birds day 27, Lots on internet can read. Lock down humidity goes up to 75% , when PIP breaks egg shell drop temp 98 can take 3 days to hatch, don't interfere . Good luck hope gosling hatches for you.

Very cool!

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind for my pumpkin plants this summer. Thanks for sharing!

@@someoneinncarolina your projects are AWESOME! Thank You! If hatching dirty eggs…..or not, is that right, you never use cloth or other to remove dirt?

Yes plants,eggs and fish tanks and fish eggs

It's good for fish eggs in a breeder box that I hatch them out in. And I add a little in the fish tank too. All eggs need to be clean just before hatching. Chickens, snakes..

Awesome!

It's a lot cheaper than rebuilding your flock!

I’ve been using Premier1 since the birds have been outside, not a single predator loss

Nice tip! I've used distilled water a little as a tool, but it's worth noting that you need to avoid it getting in their mouth/nose potentially. I've seen baby chicks drown in small amounts of water.

STOP facing your coops to the outside, face them to the inside of your yard. You have them facing the direction the predators are coming from! It's like an "open" invitation!

Hi Barry. I've have read about various disinfectants and none of them sounded as good as diluted hydrogen peroxide. My normal hatch without hydrogen peroxide was not nearly as good. I would warn that I have only tested around 3% hydrogen peroxide and the stuff in your fridge may be higher in concentration. I would also warn that hydrogen peroxide is not something I would recommend drinking... get a little of the 3% stuff on your hands and it will burn your skin even at that concentration after a few minutes. You can see discoloration from the tissue damage on your skin. Imagine that inside your mouth/throat/stomach - it's not going to kill you, but it will cause damage to tissues. I'm sure you get that warning a lot though and have already considered pros / cons before making the decision to drink it (if indeed that's what you do with it). Thanks for the comment!

​@@someoneinncarolina for those with cancer, I've heard/read it has a benefit. I just can't remember the details. My neighbor did it for a while again can't remember specifics. He battled leukemia I think but has passed after 10 years. I went through pancreatic cancer so was in tune with all the things.

Sounds like a good time!

Awesome. Let me know how it goes! :)

someguyinncarolina I most definitely will let you know how hydrogen peroxide worked for me. Thanks buddy.

Sarah Lunafire. I would have to say that the hydrogen peroxide actually does work!! It kills off the bacteria off the egg shell therefore enhances your hatch ability rate. I also would say use distilled water in your incubator. If you use this technique let me know what you think about it.

Glad to hear from another experienced hatcher! Thanks for the comment. :)

We find that it takes 24 hours for a chicken to produce/lay it's next egg ! I can almost time when I pick all my eggs... 12 blue orpingtons lay around noon daily ! Bard rocks done laying before noon ! The Silky's lay before I get out for the morning feed ! Plenty of boxes..... Plenty of room.... Always in coop or pen..... Yet they lay in shifts ? I feed n water 3 times a day.... 95% Layer mash, 5% mix of black sunflower'seed Wheat, corn, oats meal worms & maggots..... &...... baked & crushed egg shells ! (so they are unrecognizable, almost powder)

Thanks for looking into it!

Its a recent patent. Go read it.

@@lmp7179 Patent was approved in 1990. Sui is correct on it's free use today.

I believe it will work for any eggs; that said a big point of this is to sterilize the surface to help prevent infection during incubation, so after 7 days it may help or it may not. I don't think it will hurt to try it.

You should never "wash" the eggs because it destroys the natural protective layer of microbes. Though obviously the peroxide will act similarly, it skips a step. If you wash with water you will create a catalyst for infiltration of microbes, where as the peroxide diluted with distilled water acts similarly it also sterilizes simultaneously. I have successfully hatched eggs covered in poop. I have NOT successfully hatched eggs that were exposed to water for long periods of time. Water is a very tricky variable when it comes to incubation. :)

Hi any brand Will do sir? As long it's 3% right?

@@mslmusic9035 Correct - as long as it doesn't have additives like fragrances, etc. which I haven't ever seen honestly.

I went over it a little in this video way back: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bzeh2fSxhnI.html I never had enough interest to justify the effort of documenting the complex circuits and such. My goal this fall or winter is to build a simpler more off the shelf incubator and open source that.

someguyinncarolina thank you so much I really appreciate it. God bless✌🙂

@@someoneinncarolina, did your set up cost a lot to make? I am looking into a cheap, easy way to incubate eggs. I'm totally new to this so I am trying to research. Ice chests cost lots here so it would probably be easier to buy an incubator online. I also am disabled and don't have tools, so it's a bit hard at times. Right now, I'm trying a heating pad. So far, the temp and humidity are good. I'm not sure if the eggs are fertilized but since I just started today, I will check in a few days. Wish me luck! They are button quail eggs. My female was broody up till the last few days. No hatches as of yet so this time, I'm trying.

@@awesomekoga7848 I'd recommend you get an egg candler (bright flashlight basically) to verify embryo development. As long as your heating pad is consistent then you should be fine. In fact, a heating pad is more ideal than using a light bulb because a heating pad does not emit visible light. As for my setup, I want to say it was around $40 per incubator. This required technical expertise, tools, and fabrication skills. Check out the backyard chicken forums for a section on building simple incubators if you're determined to make your own. :) Good luck!

@@awesomekoga7848 often cheap at salvation army and such. I had collected for feral cat housing out in the cold

The temperature dipping a little lower is not a big deal. When the temperature gets too high it is a really big deal. I think your hatch will be fine. :)

Because of the minor etching and loss of native flora, I would not personally. I couldn't say with absolute certainty that it would matter though.

I did a video about my incubators here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bzeh2fSxhnI.html However, there wasn't enough interest for me to bother documenting my particular design. Here is a link to some other incubator designs that might be helpful: www.backyardchickens.com/articles/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures.47737/ Good luck! Thanks for the comment!

One of the reasons I haven't "open sourced" these incubator designs is because I designed (CAD) and CNC milled some of the parts. The vents were milled from my design. That said, in a pinch you can use any kind of sliding panel or drill a couple large holes in some rounds of plastic or wood to create something similar. :)

The peroxide method has a higher hatch rate than formaldehyde and other common forms of disinfectant according to the patent, so I think there is more to it, but it could simply be weakening the shell a little, etc. Thanks for the tip about the bottle... I had a bottle fail but I can't recall if it was alcohol, peroxide, or something else. :)

The peroxide needs to be stored in a dark container or it will lose its effectiveness.

Was your question cut off? It appears like your whole comment was not posted.

No I was distracted and then by accident clicked reply but I finished my comment above

@@jennifergordon8113 i think we all wanted more of the story!

Wow, never heard of that. Very interesting!

Good to know. Though peroxide is going to sterilize a broader range. Your solution will smell much better!

Electric wire fencing and 15 lbs or more fishing line criss crossed over run.

😮holy cow! Can you shoot that gator?

@@heatherk8931 My X shot him and it rolled. 2 days later....Gator. The same one? I think so just looking at the face. But, that was in June 2022. The wild birds have started moving home and the Yard Birds are only staying on the edge of the banks. I'm thinkin' sumthin's hinky. If even the 'Whistlers' won't go in the water????Might be a problem in the water. JS

If the temperature is maintained, it can be off indefinitely. The swings in extremes are a real problem... if it's off for 1 second and drops 10 degrees, it's a problem. If it's off 1 day and drops 1 degree, it's fine. The amount of time has some importance, but in general you want to minimize extreme swings. If you dropped 5 degrees, I would probably try to minimize it to no more than a few hours. Basically it will cause them to take longer to develop, or be too weak to hatch successfully, or simply stop developing, all depending on how extreme the swings are and the duration. Hope that helps.

Without actually going outside to measure and count, I want to say there are 3 or 4 holes, maybe 3" diameter. They have variable ventilation using a cover system. So the holes are actually "half" holes to allow the cover to block or open the half hole. Hopefully that makes sense. I will say you don't need A LOT of ventilation for successful hatching, but you need more than a few pencil sized holes. Also, these incubators have fans which force circulation of air.

I have never incubated ducks; however, I would lean towards slightly cooler (99f). Here is my reasoning: incubators are never fully equal in temperature in all areas due to entropy and thermal conduction - there will be hot spots and cool spots with some variance. Hot spots tend to hatch and develop slightly sooner than cold spots. That said, if you go TOO HOT, it will kill the embryo absolutely, where as if you go slightly too cool, the embryo will survive, but develop more slowly. There is a higher variance of tolerance in cooler conditions than in hotter conditions while still enabling development of the embryo. Therefor I would lean towards cooler. Hope that helps! :)

​@@someoneinncarolina sexy intellect!

I did a video about my incubators here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bzeh2fSxhnI.html However, there wasn't enough interest for me to bother documenting my particular design. Here is a link to some other incubator designs that might be helpful: www.backyardchickens.com/articles/homemade-chicken-egg-incubator-designs-pictures.47737/ Good luck! Thanks for the comment!

Thanks men.

Saline has salts and other additives, which accumulate as water evaporates, but the salts remain. I think you may end up pickling the embryos potentially. I would avoid that personally.

I haven't personally had this problem with my roosters. Mating is for asserting dominance as much as reproduction... I've even had hens "mate" other hens to display dominance. It's similar to rabbits in that way. That said, there are plenty of people who SWEAR their rooster has never mated their hens, and the eggs are still fertilized. It only takes 1 mating for 14 days of fertile eggs. My guess is your rooster may be particular to certain hens... ie is not mating all of them. So while it appears he is not mating successfully based upon your hatch rate, it's possible he just has a few favorites. How do you force him to mate with all the hens evenly? I'm not sure. :( You can always isolate him with certain hens I suppose. Beyond that, Google will give you a better answer than me, since I have little experience with this issue personally. Sorry I can't be more helpful. Good luck!

I can't say I've had experience with anything but Chickens (bantam/full) and Guinea Fowl (fancy/broiler). I would encourage you to try hydrogen peroxide as the sterilizer and tell everyone here how it worked out! :D

someguyinncarolina I will give it a try. I forgot to mention I hatched 3 of 4 silkie eggs (4th was not fertilized) they are 72 hrs old - and I have a 3 week old solo silkie. When do you think I can keep them together? I’ve done supervised visits for half hour both today and yesterday. Precious little things.

That's tricky - chickens grow so fast. Generally I mix them when the little ones can run away from the big ones faster than the big ones can walk on them! I'd guess maybe a week for the little ones.

Thats amazing!! What was the temperature and humidity level of your incubator.

​@@someoneinncarolina 1 week is good. I bought 3 buff Orpington chicks when they were available and my 4 chicks hatched out the next week. Amazing to see at 1 week the growth difference! At 1 week for my hatched I started testing them together to see how they did. Hilarious because my hatchling pecked at the older bird right off!😂 3/18/23 birthday (named Paddy, of course). So now I leave together for hours but sleep separate and wet crumbles separately to make sure everyone gets enough. Seems to be working well.

Thanks!

You should not spray after incubation has begun, at least not consistently. I have hatched eggs covered in POOP just fine. The main thing is to ensure water does not create a bridge between outside bacteria and inside embryo. Better to stay on the dry side during primary incubation and wet things (with WATER) more near the end after the embryo has mostly formed. I think before incubation has begun, you should use plenty of peroxide (diluted at around 3%) to clean things up. Really think about this process as erasing on a piece of paper. You want to start blank, but you don't want to erase your embryo once it has begun. I can't say for sure the thresholds of at what point in time, or what quantity of peroxide would be OK. Sorry I can't be more helpful off hand. Good luck!

Thank you. I appreciate your responds. I will just let it run. Fingers crossed!

The eggs are only sprayed with hydrogen peroxide ONCE at the beginning as an initial sterilization. I couldn't say if there would be any advantage or disadvantage to doing it more than once.

I have a basic video about it, but it's way to technical for most people. I am hoping to come back around to this and do a more basic design that doesn't require people to be engineers to make it. :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bzeh2fSxhnI.html

@@someoneinncarolina or instead of assuming everyone is too stupid, just show how it’s made anyway? You engineers are just too smart eh?

@@passionfruiter3184 Not about smart vs. stupid - about time to thoroughly document something complicated. It's not like there aren't hundreds of open source incubator plans out there already.

There's a patent on them. Lol

Forgive my lack of preconceptions: 1) Your hen is being mated by a rooster, right? Without that, they will never be fertile. Also if the rooster is a lot smaller than the hen, it can prevent successful fertilization. A single mating can fertilize a hen for 2 weeks. 2) If you're storing the eggs in a fridge, stop doing that. A fridge is too cold typically. Try going directly from nest to incubator. Even though this will stagger the hatching, it's not a big deal. 3) Sounds like you don't have a candling light. Buy one, they are cheap. You should be able to see something around 7 days. Check every 5-7 days to watch progress. Have DRY clean hands while handling. Water is an ideal catalyst for contamination. 4) Make sure your incubator isn't running hot; it should be between 99f-102f. Even a couple degrees too hot and they will never develop. Hope that helps!

hell yea you help is greatly appreciate, and yes the i have roosters with the chickens, and about the candling i haven't done it cause i wanted to wait til the end, but am going to check them and again much thanks i learned about water, the hard way, what i do is disinfected the eggs, and keep the eggs in a room at room temp. hey, i know this will be my time, you'll see . will let you know

The point of storing them at 50f (cold) is to extend the period of time you have to activate the eggs. If you're storing the eggs more than a few days at room temperature it can also prevent development of an embryo. If you start incubation immediately you have the highest chance of development. So if your current plan doesn't work, try immediate incubation and staggered hatching.

again thank you, this got to be the right one third time is a charm,

I just watched a vid last night a young lady had unwittingly refrigerated the eggs and they hatched - don't remember how many but enough she was happy!

Hmm... thanks for your input. I hadn't considered publishing plans, but I suppose I could give it a try just to see how it does. Good point on sourcing materials - that is often a challenge. Let me ask you this - how many eggs are you looking to incubate at once?

Some Guy In N Carolina I’m flexible as to how many eggs. I think it would be great to start with a smaller incubator that could later be used as a hatcher for a cabinet incubator if my poultry addiction gets to that level. So enough room for that, for sure. From my reading on Backyard Chickens I’m guessing a lot of folks go that way. Also I’m justifying my covetousness for an incubator because I’ve pretty much decided to add quail as another meat source. I’d definitely want one for quail, right? ;-) I have geese coming, so there will be goose eggs too, and heritage turkeys. (I don’t want them to brood if I can help it because I want them all following my cows around their rotational grazing. (Obviously not including the quail.) I realize the turkeys will go where they like, but some folks have told me their turkeys choose to mostly stay inside the poultry netting. I’m okay with mostly. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.)

@@cindyskillman544 Wow, that's ambitious. If your lifestyle and time allows it, you can juggle quite a bit I've found. After my daughter was born I really scaled down my farming activities to just bantam chickens and full chickens, then eventually to just full chickens. I used to do quite a lot of guinea fowl hatching and raising them as well, which is a challenge due to their wildness. I'm also interested in turkeys. My wife has some interest in quail, but they seem a bit small for eating IMO. :) The next incubator design I have in mind is a cabinet style, but for the price point I am hoping to support about 100 eggs and 1 month of raising. We'll see...

Some Guy In N Carolina I understand about kids. They just take your breath away in so many ways! LOL We’re retired, so have plenty of time. I’ve always wanted to do this, but life sometimes doesn’t flow where we had planned. Anyway, let me know if you do put something up for Kindle. Your incubators are the best looking ice chest types I’ve seen. Usually they’re really haphazard. Not that that would keep them from working, but it seems like a less-than-good-sign.

@@cindyskillman544 Thanks. The problem with the design of the incubators in this video is that I CNCed some of the parts I designed, and did microcontroller programming for the software controller. It's way too complex for the average person to create from plans. The next design will be all off the shelf parts and an approach that doesn't require high fabrication equipment/skills.

Sorry this video was from quite a while back and I cannot recall the nuance details. I think simply ensuring accuracy is most important with temperature, so I always used an additional temp/humidity sensor against the temp sensor with the microcontroller that modulated temperature. Humidity I tend to run dry until near the end, but the only sure way to know is based on measuring the air space with candling the egg. People tend to try and follow a particular humidity as a rule of thumb, but I've had too much humidity back fire as well. Too dry and they have a hard time pipping, too wet and the internal pip will cause them to drown during hatch process. It's tricky if your environmental controls are not very accurate... the best thing is to nail down a process that works best for your environment and equipment. :)

Can't say for sure! I haven't tried it. I imagine as long as you aren't using a copious amount it should be OK.

Do not get the eggs wet during incubation DO NOT!

@@huss9629 I do the floating candling method and things come out fine. :) The key is to not stress. Eggs in nature get rained on, touched by all sorts of bacteria, and more, and still manage to hatch.

"Incidentally" the typical over the counter ratio of water to hydrogen peroxide is already correct in the consumer product. My conclusion is someone just decided to try using OTC hydrogen peroxide and it worked. Astonishing to me that the process can even be patented. So to answer your question more simply, unless you are using lab grade hydrogen peroxide, it is already the correct ratio of water. Thanks.

Actually one other clarification - hydrogen peroxide used for bleaching hair will also not be the correct ratio. Your typical OTC for wound care would be the correct ratio - should say on the back 3-7%. Thanks.

Thanks a million, it's 3% one I got and not the hair bleaching one lol.

I would think so.

Good and common advise. Unfortunately I've had plenty of breaches with a hot wire system. The net probably would work to keep hawks away though. :) A lot of things work for different people in different regions - it largely depends on the desperation of the animals at the time.

@@someoneinncarolina easiest Criss cross 15 lb + fishing line over runs

I have real world experience with this. I had a huge clutch of about 50 guinea fowl eggs that were rained on and sat on by a broody hen for about a week. I was hopeful and incubated them. About a month in they began exploding from microbes generating gas inside. Not a single one had embryo growth. You can try it, but in my experience rain plus dirty chicken butt equals exploding eggs. I say this having successfully incubated eggs with actual poop on them many times. Something about getting wet and left out allows penetration of infection substantially more. If you do give it a try, let me know how it goes. You can candle them after a week or two and toss them before they begin exploding/spreading infection. Good luck!

someguyinncarolina thank you so much for replying. I'm gonna try to clean them first and disinfect as you do in this video. I'll definitely let you know how it goes.

@@someoneinncarolina I've never suffered the trauma of an egg explosion and I hope I never do. Gross!!! The leaky, weepy eggs are bad enough. I've been using the H2O2 spray for a couple of years and it has improved my hatch percentage. Some still die during incubation tho. Mostly crested ducks, but those are dicey anyhow. Thanks for posting these tips. I'm reviewing what I know and looking for new information because I was gifted 100 bob white eggs for hatching. They're going in later today once I've removed the chicks and sanitized the incubator.

I love my Bobwhite quail (100). Make sure you separate the hens from the roos because in the spring the boys get pretty mean.

That is pretty low... try a rinse with hydrogen peroxide initially when setting the eggs and see if it improves. My guess is your humidity might be too high or too low. You can tell by candling to check the air space in the egg. If the air space is too small it means they are saturated in water (humidity too high). If the air space is too large it means they will have a hard time breaking through the membrane and egg shell (humidity too low). It's also possible it's related to genetics, but usually it's the conditions. If your hens get broody you can use one to incubate the eggs alternatively. I have excellent luck with broody hens... except once the eggs hatch they are often terrible mothers. Good luck!

@@someoneinncarolina Thanks for the tips. I think the humidity may have been too low. I tried a "dry" hatch. I kept the humidity around 45%. I started my higher humidity level at day 18. I will do it sooner after watching your video and for sure try the hydrogen peroxide trick. Two out of the 4 that hatched needed help getting out of the shell so I should probably not do a dry hatch again. A skunk killed my chickens so I have one silkie hen left. She is beautiful but the worst mom and she never goes broody. That is probably how she survived the attack, she wasn't on a nest being a broody monster. She fled when it all went down.

@@beegirl84 My layers perch up high every night... my Silky's lay first... barred rocks next, blue orpingtons done just after lunch...! By then they are all outside.... Guinea's flock protectors ! Just like the turkeys... Predators 0 Chickens 50+

The incubators turn them, so yes. Though I stop the last few days before hatching to make it easy for the chicks to orient themselves.

Yes. I've hatched eggs covered in poop by cleaning them a little. Surprisingly I've also hatched eggs covered in poop without cleaning them. Sometimes you get lucky. :) That said, if an egg has been exposed to water and sat for a day or two, you are likely going to have infection in that egg, covered in poop or not. If much time has passed with wet conditions then the water acts as a catalyst to transfer infection from the outside to the inside. So even if you clean them with hydrogen peroxide before setting, it is unlikely to succeed when there is a history of getting wet with water for more than a short time.

It's already diluted between 3% - 7%, so no need to dilute further. If you have more concentration you should dilute accordingly to reach that range.

I don't entirely understand your question, but I applied HP just before starting the initial incubation process. It is done early in the process, not near the end. Thanks.

Ok thanku sir.

I fill the bottom of the incubator with some tap water always, and I spray once a day with distilled water until near the end of the incubation when I spray maybe twice a day or so. Basically I just spray when I'm checking up on things. This was also a winter incubation so the heaters ran more and hence things were very dry. In other conditions you wouldn't need to spray as much. These incubators were basically out in the open (gable venting) in an unconditioned space, fighting below freezing temperatures. Use a humidistat to verify whether you need more or less moisture. I don't think you need to be as strict as some people say about humidity parameters - they varied widely during incubation and I still had very high success rates hatching when using hydrogen peroxide. As with many things people tend to be dogmatic to a fault without doing real experimentation to verify assumptions. I've broken many "rules" when incubating and still had high success.

Thanks. My findings are based on years of experimentation, though I never intentionally do harm. I will warn about sealing up an incubator - it MUST have some air flow, and I don't mean a few small holes. If your incubator is sealed up dramatically, the chicks may hatch, but they may have deformities. I figured that out the hard way with an early design that had around 6x 1/4" holes total - not enough. I was also trying to meet the standards of humidity that others talk about. There is actually such a thing as too much humidity as well... the embryo when doing the internal pip must have sufficient air space to develop lungs. If the humidity is too high then the air space will be insufficient. Of course if humidity is too low it will also be disastrous as well because the membranes will be tough to pierce. Using diluted hydrogen peroxide on commercial eggs I can't imagine would do any harm, so I would recommend it. On the rooster note, a single fertilization lasts 14 days, so even if your fella isn't very frisky, it doesn't take much to have fertile eggs. With mail order eggs in general I would warn that they can get "scrambled" in transit. One thought about natural incubation (ie with a hen) - it has excellent success in my experience. Though I often have hens that are clueless when it comes to taking care of the chicks. I've even had hens attempt to kill the chicks that hatch because the instinct is merely to incubate eggs and seems to end there. Once the chick hatches the hen seems to consider it competition and tries to kill it. As for latex paint being toxic, that really depends on the paint and what other additives are used. If you want to seal holes in an incubator, I'd recommend food, medical, or aquarium grade silicone caulk. That can often be found at hardware stores, but if not, it can be found online. If an incubator is made of wood then I could see value in sealing it with latex paint. If it's made of plastic then I don't see the value due to already very low permeability. If the paint is white it will better reflect the infrared energy of a light bulb, but the convection cycle itself will do a good job already, especially with high humidity as a thermal catalyst. Best of luck!

You may have noticed I have half moon covers on my holes for fresh air. This allows variable ventilation. You might consider putting some laminated cardboard or something similar around some of the holes to adjust air intake, as long as it isn't too restricted. Really though, inside a conditioned space like your house, you should be able to hold humidity pretty well. Again it it's vitally important to hold perfect humidity. The most important part is ensuring the amount of liquid within the egg is balanced. This chart is a good reference: www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/5484238/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL

I'm going to call BS on not mixing full size and bantam eggs. They have roughly if not the same incubation time. You can also mix incubation times and stagger hatches - I've done it dozens of times. I've been incubating/raising full size and bantam together for years, even cross breeding frequently. They can be mixed - just make sure the eggs get turned (automatic turners are often size specific). If you have to hand turn, draw a point with a marker to keep track of position. People also talk about turning eggs many times daily. They can be turned once a day in my experience without problems. I've also NOT turned them much at all. They still hatch but the chicks will be kind of lopsided. They will even out over time though. I'd still recommend turning often if you can, but if you can't it's not a deal breaker. As for the humidity, just try to keep it matching the chart. It can fluctuate wildly - not a problem. The main thing is to avoid it being too humid that when you candle the air pocket is too small, and being so dry that the air pocket is way too big. It's actually safer to be on the dry side, but the drier, the more you risk having to do an intervention, which is very tricky. If they're too wet, there's a good chance the embryo won't hatch and the chick won't survive. You can completely screw up humidity as long as it's roughly the correct liquid level inside the egg in the last 3-5 days. If it dries out too much, the ambient or direct humidity will absorb and change the liquid level. If the liquid level is too high, you can lower humidity and it will dry out more. The embryo will not die if the humidity is screwed up, unless it's really dramatically screwed up. You can still intervene when too wet or dry and save a life, but be prepared to have their death on your hands - especially if you've never done it before. The first several times you fail is deeply saddening. One thing that's helpful if you do have to intervene is a clotting powder for birds. It's incredibly easy to break the blood vessels in the membrane, but you can clot that spot using a powder. I've even used some fine sand in a pinch. If you don't help it clot with light pressure or powder, they will almost always die. Preferably you get the timing perfect and just have to help a tiny bit. It's too complicated to post more about in the comments, but there are dozens of pages about this process on the backyardchickens forum. I've also used vaseline in a pinch to keep the exposed membrane from drying out. I would not cover the whole egg with vaseline though, even during the hatching process. Anyway, hatching and intervention is a really complicated topic that has to happen in a very specific sequence with specific timing. It's too much to talk about fully here, but I've read much about it on backyardchicken forums. Good luck!

Everything becomes an equilibrium in terms of humidity. Again, I would just focus on the chart in terms of targets and not worry too much until near the end (maybe candle at 10 days, then 15 days). In the video I mentioned I keep humidity 30-40% until around day 15 when I move them into the secondary incubator that lacks a turner. Your memory is correct - 15 days "lockdown". In the video I'm using multiple incubators to stagger the hatches for a constant stream of chicks. If you only have one incubator then you pretty much need to do everything at once to make sure they are at the correct air pocket size at the right time. Nature is resilient and things don't need to be perfect. Even with poor incubation management the strongest birds will still hatch. (or the ones in the best position in terms of heat / humidity / etc.) :)