Hatching chicken eggs without incubator

[Paula28626]

I hatched out 10 eggs a few yrs ago by putting them in a laundry basket with a heating pad and hung a light over them. I would turn them daily and on day 21 ish I heard a little peep and they were hatching. I am reading a lot about humidity and temperatures and how hard it is to hatch them out and how hard it is to keep the right temp and humidity.
I am curious, not trying to make waves here but am I missing something?
I am getting back into raising my own chickens now. I live in a colder climate than I did back them but I am going to try it again and I will post pix and comments as I go along.
Has anyone else here tried without an incubator?

 

[MySweetChickens]

I had chicks hatch in my hayloft it gets up to 90 degrees on a warm day there were 5 and they all survived

 

[davemonkey]

I attempted 3 eggs (or was it 5?) in an ice-chest when a broody hen gave up on Day 16. I had blankets in the bottom to bring the floor up higher, and a shop light sitting on the cooler for warmth. I got 1 chick out of it, and he is now my all-star Roo. The shells were all thin and the air pockets WAY too big, so just having the 1 hatch seemed like a huge success to me.

I think the whole thing with incubators is not so much that they are *necessary* to hatch chicks, just that they make it more controlled and have the potential to increase hatch rates, even when outside conditions, shell quality, etc...are not ideal.

 

[lazy gardener]

Paula, you might want to go to the thread on Natural Nest Incubation, the brain child of Bee Kissed.

 

[Paula28626]

thx

 

[spaceylocust]

Paula, you might want to go to the thread on Natural Nest Incubation, the brain child of Bee Kissed.

Ditto. I've been following it and she shares her successes and failures and what happened to cause each. You also might want to read the article on Dry Hatching. I just did after reading the info from a very successful hatcher in Australia (his name escapes me.....sorry).