Questions re incubation

Hi Prod, have you done much hatching before?

I have to say, you are choosing a difficult time of year to start hatching; fertility is usually pretty low during winter, especially approaching the shortest day, unless the hens and cockerel have been kept under lights and indoors/sheds.  Secondly bantams hatching just before Christmas are going to take a lot of TLC, and may not grow as large as they would have done if hatched in early spring.

Have you double checked with your feed supplier that you can still buy chick crumbs (I know chick crumbs disappear from my agri centre in about September).

If you have all of that sorted out... next set of questions:

Do you have a second incubator?  If no, then I would incubate this one set of 6 eggs before starting off any others.  You should still use the hen setting, but be aware that  bantams may hatch as early as day 19, so I'd be tempted to stop turning at day 17 rather than the usual 18.  this is on reason why, unless you have a dedicated hatching incubator/hatcher, you shouldn't mix bantam and LF eggs in an incubator.

When you get the eggs, keep them pointy end down for 24 hours in a cool (not cold) room.  This gives the air sac time to restabilise.