Incubator vs Broody - Results

[seagullplayer]

I think a good hen will always come out ahead in any race.
But it is so hard to get good furtile eggs this time of year, the best chance you have is from your own coop.

 

[ElaineE]

I have 3 pairs of hens.
I have 3 cages.
When they start sitting, I put golf balls under them until I can gather up the eggs I want to hatch.
I put about 8 eggs under each hen.
When the babies hatch, they know the cluck of both hens that were in the cage together.
So the 2 hens take care of the whole 16 babies. I make a ramp back up into the cage and the 2 hens go right back into the cage at night together.
One hen by herself raises free range about 50% of her chicks.
The 2 hens are 100% succesful raising all 16.
The funniest pair I have is a Black Silkie Bantum and a Black Tophat with bronze tips on her feathers.
I have never had a tophat sit before her.
She stops clucking and goes back to roosting about a month before the Silkie.
So the chicks continue to follow the Silkie.
I have a tiny little Japanese White, about the size of a pigeon, that hatched out 3 Tophat eggs.
She has continued to cluck all through the winter. The chicks are full size, but still follow her around. It is quite comical to see them try to snuggle up under her still. She is 1/3 their size.