I am experiencing my first broody hen/momma (a partridge show quality Silkie) right now and I can tell you that I will never go back to incubating eggs. It is so much easier to let them do all the work. She got up when she wanted to eat and drink and she is taking excellent care of the babies, one of them a Serama, so I feel blessed that it even hatched! (I had 3 out of 4 Seramas hatch). My only problem now is the chicks are much smaller than the ones I hatched out in the incubator at the same time and I'm wondering how long I leave them with the Momma. I will let her hatch out all the babies she wants from now on