best hatch rate: incubator or sitting hen?

[technodoll]

Yep, have two silkie girls now: one 8-mth old that's sitting on some eggs and one 4-mth old that will hopefully also want to be a mama at some point of her life!

Blossom and Angel, my two white fluffy sweeties

 

[Chic Chick]

Quote:
Sweet!! keep in touch with how your hatch goes. I've got blue and red silkies and 1 lone buff pullet since my buff roo disappeared a couple of weeks ago. (I didn't count heads that night and my grandkids had left the silkie cage open so I din't notice he was outside somewhere

)

 

[swheat]

It is hard to beat Mother Nature at her game ! but we keep trying

 

[hinkjc]

I can say without a doubt that my incubators do a much better job than any broody hen I've ever used. Broodies are good, but not reliable imo.

 

[technodoll]

Well I found a tiny (3 eggs max) incubator, brand new and super cheap, am getting it in a few days... so I can then experience the joy of hatching chicks both naturally and artificially, wooo!

Assuming I get good, fertilized eggs to hatch of course...

 

[hinkjc]

Well, I can't speak for the 3 egg bator, but I've heard horror stories about hatch rates in those. I was referring to GQF hovabators (with fans) and GQF Sportsman and Brinsea OvaEasy - these are reliable incubators.

 

[technodoll]

Ah well, I'll try with some of my girl's eggs and if any hatch then I can invest in some real breed eggs after that.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

 

[FenDruadin]

Oh MYYY. Holy cow. Who would pay $4k for an incubator that only hatches 60 at a time? Those would have to be golden eggs hatching golden chicks to be worth it. Sheesh. Compared to a 300-egg Dickey--you'd spend $20,000 to hatch the same number of eggs in the Contaq Z6 thingy. Wow.

Okay. I guess there are people with more money than they know what to do with who want to hatch eggs--and don't want to have to think about it--just plunk the eggs in and forget. Wish I had that kind of money.

 

[eggsrcool]

Broody hens, all the way.
Just a shame they can't sit on a lot of eggs

Plus it's cute when the chicks are outside in the sun, with the hen

 

[Cowgirl71]

I'd say broody hen by a longshot (comapared to a LG 9200 w/out a fan). I gave a Buff Orpington 13 eggs. In the first few days, one broke.

On day 18, I took them out from under her to hatch in the bator. I candled them that night, and 11 were good, one was bad (was either a dud or died in the first 48 hours). Then on day 20, all 11 hatched, all within 36 hours of each other.

I had started 48 eggs the same day that I gave the 13 eggs to the broody (trying to time them all to hatch at the same time). They hatched day 21-23. I got 11 chicks (two of these I had to help, for no apparent reason), two different ones later died. Several of the remaing chicks are runty.

Anyway. The bator is really handy because I can decide when to hatch eggs. But I'm much more impressed with the broody. Now if only they'd go broody earlier in the year...