Hatch rates of broody hatch vs incubator hatch?

[Chubbicthe2nd]

What are the typical rates between a incubator and a broody hen?

I'm aware that there's a wide number of factors to the point that this might be a stupid question to ask.

But for someone who has a choice between a budget breeder and a hen, is the hen the better bet? Our hens tend to be interested in setting already. There's four of them, 6 months old, two of them are Sussex mixes with something I'm not sure, and two of them are Dark Cornish Easter egger crosses.

Your anecdotal data will be very much appreciated by me.

 

[Chicken Heel]

Based on hatching eggs for over 50 years, I much prefer mother hens do it. Most of them have been a 100% success with the understanding that they be kept away from their flock mates during the incubation period and while utilizing fertile eggs of course.

 

[GracePoultry]

The mother hen is normally the "safer" option when it comes to hatch rate. I just hatched chicks in an incubator for the first time and I think i prefer that because I can closely monitor chicks if there are any complication in hatching as well as there's no risk of a hen abandoning eggs half way through incubation and no risk fo a mother hen injuring chicks either.

However the hen is always going to know more about hatching chicks then an incubator

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm aware that there's a wide number of factors to the point that this might be a stupid question to ask.

It is a good question, just lots of factors. Like anything else we do it a variety of ways for a variety of reasons.

One factor with me is that with an incubator you control when you set eggs. You don't have any real control over when a hen will go broody. How important is timing to you? I hatch about 45 chicks a year to eat. I don't have enough freezer space to just fill it up with chicken meat so I hatch at different times of the year. I generally have a pretty big hatch in February with my incubator, maybe 20 chicks. That way I can start butchering chickens when I run out of meat in the freezer in June. My hens are not going to go broody until late spring so I start using them then to hatch chicks. I'll have three or four broody hens hatch and raise another 25 chicks over summer.

If you use an incubator, you have to raise the chicks. I need to handle integration with the rest of the flock. Since they are in a brooder instead of out roaming with a hen there is more poop to manage. I work harder with incubator chicks. With a broody hen I let them hatch and raise with the flock and let the hens handle integration, less work for me.

I've had really high hatch rates with my incubator, some hatches that were not great. I've had some great hatch rates with broody hens, some that were not that high. When things go well with a broody she probably has a better hatch rate than an incubator but since you are dealing with a living animal sometimes things don't go well. Over the course of a couple of years the hatch rate is probably pretty close to the same.

My personal preference is to use a broody. She raises them and integrates them so I don't have to. But if I don't have a broody hen when I need one I crank up the incubator.