The first chicks hatched in our new incubator (a hexagonal Janoel) over the weekend.
We rather unexpectedly started with 36 eggs, pulled four duds out during the week, all of the rest looked great bar two that did not take up all the room in the shell (but we saw one move). These were the only eggs I could get locally so we have a very mixed bag in this lot – 2 of our own eggs which could be frizzle x wyandotte/ancona/isa/, 10 mostly pekin bantams from the owners description (I didn’t see them), 14 australorpe x light sussex or x RIR and the rest a real mix of RIR cross allsorts.
The first three bantam chicks (marked on the shells) all hatched around 7.30 Saturday evening and in total 24 eggs hatched. 8 eggs remain in the incubator, but no pips and seeing as the first hatched on Saturday 7.30pm I hold no hope that any of these are alive 
It is possible that humidity may have had a role in that – although the water tanks were topped up, a skin formed over the water from the fluff/dander/poop/crud that fell through the mesh floor. One chick had zipped almost all the way round last night but was still not out and looking very dry in the membranes late this morning, so I did the slightest separation of the egg with my fingernail, added a warm wet sponge and sprayed the remaining eggs in the incubator. Within 15 minutes the three last pippers had hatched, but their fluff was dried but not fluffy.
