Thanks for all the tips. It's mild here in South Devon but I guess will drop overnight and may drop in Jan. The temp reading seems to be stable around 37 but I guess as you say, the outer eggs may suffer. I haven't put any water in yet and I can't find my little humidity meter thing. Am I going to have too high or too low humidity in winter? Last summer we really suffered keeping the humidity up and had poor hatch rates.
I know fertility will not be the best but the guy I got the eggs from (RIR) has 7 boys running with 40 odd hens so I'm hoping for a few at least. I know I'm not going to get a top result. I need a few eggs in autumn / winter to keep the local customers going as they have been moaning this year. I thought about doing some hybrids but have decided to stick with pures if possible and the only way of getting autumn eggs is probably to hatch in Jan.
I'll be setting some of my own LS eggs next week once I have 24 together. So I'm hoping that between the 2, I get 10 or so hens that will lay through next winter.