http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chicks.html
This is a good article about using a broody hen to "naturally" hach eggs. Yes it does mention the hen will leave the nest daily " She will likely get off the nest once a day for a few minutes to eat, drink, defecate, take a dust bath or exercise."
But it also says this..."The less you handle the eggs, the better. If you want to inspect and candle the eggs to check on their progress (or lack of), resist the temptation of doing it too often. On the other hand, you don't want to have rotten eggs that could create health and safety problems if they crack open. A good compromise is to candle all the eggs at the same time between seventh and tenth day of the incubation process."
And this...."Don't use this method unless you are content to hatch a limited number of eggs and are willing to make a greater risk of a failed hatch. Most standard size hens that go broody can easily cover 12 to 15 eggs. Large hens of large breeds may be able to cover as many as 20. The more eggs under a hen, the greater the risk that some eggs won't be covered effectively and consistantly enough to hatch. In addition, although most hens will be Hortonesque in their faithfulness, some may give up on the eggs altogether or at least leave the nest for too long at the wrong time for a very successful hatch. "
And most importantly, this...."If the chicks have not all hatched after a couple of days, the mother hen will start to ignore the remaining eggs as she gets up and moves about to care for the chicks. Although I have contemplated moving them to an incubator or placing the eggs another broody hen, I have yet to have found a viable egg among any a hen has abandoned. Candling may reveal that an chick never developed. Unfortunately only cracking open the egg will show you if there is an embryo that just didn't make it."
Broody hens don't get emotionally attached to the chicks that don't hatch. It's apples and oranges.....We can't help but be attached and feel guilty if things go wrong - especially once we realize it was our fault. With the incubators, we are attempting to recreate a scenario of hatching and rearing chicks as the mother hen would do. It's not perfect, but it does work. It actually can work better than the way it's done by the hen. And, it works best if we are as "hands off" as absolutely possible.
The long and short is we can all do our chicken rearing any old way we want to do it. Personally, I've made tons of mistakes as I've tried to figure this hatching thing out. I'm just trying to share what I've learned.
