Existing chicken incubators, especially low cost and older models, use the same egg tray through the 18 day Setting Phase, as well as through the final three days hatching phase; while this does help keep production costs down, it does have a definite ongoing price
It means saving eggs for three weeks before putting down each setting, or wasting two-thirds of them because only eggs under a week old hatch best. Those chickens are also the most healthy and viable.
This handicap of setting mainly stale eggs motivated makers of the Black Chick Incubators to fit all their models, above the 12 egg school incubator, with a separate hatcher tray, immediately over the water dish to ensure ample moisture to soften the shells during hatching.
This allows split hatches every 11 days, or better still, facilitates regular cycle hatches on the same day every week, like the commercial hatcheries. So every setting of eggs put into these incubators is under a week old, producing visibly brighter chickens, and more of them.
Dominion Incubators of Hamilton, N.Z, also provide free cycle hatching notes to help users get the optimum results that this system offers, with tips on making an evaporator wick to boost humidity just when it is needed.