I like to hatch my eggs in an incubator and then give chicks to my broody hens. This is mostly because I haven't had success trying to segregate my broody from the rest of the flock, and she sometimes forgets which nest she was sitting on and changes halfway through incubation.
By incubating the eggs and then giving her the chicks, I get a lot of pros from both sides. I get to control the incubation, see the chicks hatch, and make sure they are all healthy while also getting the benefit of having hen raised chicks.
Although, if it wasn't such a pain to segregate them, I would def let her hatch her own.
As far as incubators go, have you thought about building your own? There are a ton of great ideas on here on how to build one and people have been just as successful, sometimes even more so, than with store bought incubators. And it is often a lot cheaper to build one...
By incubating the eggs and then giving her the chicks, I get a lot of pros from both sides. I get to control the incubation, see the chicks hatch, and make sure they are all healthy while also getting the benefit of having hen raised chicks.
Although, if it wasn't such a pain to segregate them, I would def let her hatch her own.
As far as incubators go, have you thought about building your own? There are a ton of great ideas on here on how to build one and people have been just as successful, sometimes even more so, than with store bought incubators. And it is often a lot cheaper to build one...
