Artificial Incubation VS natural: Your Opinion.

[MeepBeep]

You make some very good points. From the sound of things though you have a very good incubation set up.

Nothing fancy just a foam one I tossed together from some stuff I had laying around the house, and an $8 water heater thermostat I had to purchase and I hand turn the eggs myself... It was originally just going to be a hatcher for the last few days but it works so well it's become my primary incubator... For my own eggs I get 95% to 100% hatch rate out of it, from other 'local' eggs I pickup myself I get about 90% to 95% hatch rate, shipped eggs are so hit and miss I don't factor them into the incubators performance... I have had 100% hatch rate from shipped eggs and 0% from shipped eggs, with shipped eggs and all the variables on how they were handled prior to getting to me it's really a very poor measurement of an incubators performance...

Either way I'm in the process of designing my own custom computer controlled incubator for next year... It will be pretty much fully automated, temp, humidity and even have an all day random egg turning feature to mimic the randomness a hen does all day while sitting... I expect it to perform quite well when done...

 

[mymilliefleur]

Very interesting set up. I'd love to see pictures.
I've only mail ordered eggs once and I got a 75% hatch rate but I've heard story's of people buying expensive hatching eggs and getting no chicks out of it.

 

[Aphrael]

Nothing fancy just a foam one I tossed together from some stuff I had laying around the house, and an $8 water heater thermostat I had to purchase and I hand turn the eggs myself... It was originally just going to be a hatcher for the last few days but it works so well it's become my primary incubator... For my own eggs I get 95% to 100% hatch rate out of it, from other 'local' eggs I pickup myself I get about 90% to 95% hatch rate, shipped eggs are so hit and miss I don't factor them into the incubators performance... I have had 100% hatch rate from shipped eggs and 0% from shipped eggs, with shipped eggs and all the variables on how they were handled prior to getting to me it's really a very poor measurement of an incubators performance...

Either way I'm in the process of designing my own custom computer controlled incubator for next year... It will be pretty much fully automated, temp, humidity and even have an all day random egg turning feature to mimic the randomness a hen does all day while sitting... I expect it to perform quite well when done...

That sounds amazing!

Would love to see pics of it when you get it built.

Very interesting set up. I'd love to see pictures.
I've only mail ordered eggs once and I got a 75% hatch rate but I've heard story's of people buying expensive hatching eggs and getting no chicks out of it.

I've had shipped eggs with 0 hatches several times. It is devastating. But now, I've read everything I can find about shipping practices, and I refuse to buy eggs from anyone anymore who won't pack them in a way that I think they have the best chance of getting to me with as little damage as possible.

 

[Manningjw]

Natural incubation: For me the pros are - the hen does all the work, and does it so much better than an artificial incubator. She's the exact right temperature and humidity, and knows when the hatch is done. She's also better than putting the chicks in a brooder box. She can keep them warm, she teaches them to eat, drink, and be chickens. My broody-raised chicks are more predator-savvy, and are roosting before 1 month of age. (Not that the roosting part really matters to me, but some people find it important.) The cons - I can't hatch chicks on my own schedule.

Artificial incubation: The only pros I can think of are - I can hatch on my schedule, and I can get more eggs in an incubator than under a hen.

This sums it up pretty well.

For me I like both for different reasons. For natural incubation if you have a broody that you know is a good one and you can trust to stay broody and not be genocidal it is great. Every so often broody hens aren't quite up to task.

The cons for natural incubation for me are figuring out a feeder that the chicks can use but the mother hen cannot destroy/knock over trying to get the food out for the little ones. What I have resorted to doing is making a chick ramp for them to use the adult feeder because it is more robust.

The pros artificial are the same as bobbi-j in addition to the chicks seeming to be more human friendly because you are around them more and they get used to human interaction. I imagine you can still have this with a brooded chick but the downside of not having to care for them several times a day is that they are not used to your presence as much.