Pros and Cons of letting hen hatch own chicks?

[kuntrygirl]

Pros of letting Hens hatch their own (In My Opinion)
You don't have to worry about having the right temperature
You don't have to worry about having the right humidity
You don't have to worry about having the eggs turned
My hens are great mothers!


Cons (In My Opinion & from my experience)
If she decides to go "unbroody" and you don't have another broody hen, then the eggs go bad.


I purchased an incubator for the first time a few months ago and I HATE INCUBATORS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's too stressful!

 

[dinahmoe]

a hen can really squish the eggs? I had one broody hen lay on them all the way.. it's not like we should prevent her from having a "stretch-leggy" i let mine do that and she comes back and warms them up... if she didn't come back in half hour to an hour i'd go out and see what happened to her.
Wait, how are incubator chicks happier? I would think a chick is happy when they can peak out of their momma's wing. with incubation they don't have their real momma around, it's sad.
True that with natural way, there's less eggs she can handle to hatch than an incubator. But with an incubator, esp a turner machine, you need many eggs to hatch to get this benefit.. then you get so many birds to feed at a time.

 

all that i listed was with a broody.happier chicks are under pros most definately.

 

[spartacus_63]

I have a rooster and a hen that I want to breed. I have another hen that is broody. Do I take the eggs from the breeding hen and give them to the broody one each day, or do I save up the number of eggs I want to hatch and give them to the broody all at once?

I would save the eggs, get the hen broody on wooden eggs or other eggs that you aren't hatching. This will ensure she is really broody and not just semi-broody. The last thing you want is for a first time broody to abandon the eggs after a few days.

I have collected hatching eggs for more than ten days and normally have a 90% or better hatch rate. The eggs that do not hatch are no more likely to be the oldest than the newest.

If you give the hen eggs one at a time, she will eventually abandon some of the unhatched eggs so she can tend to her chicks.

 

[Spring Chook]

I have hatched heaps of eggs and only ever used a broody hen, usually a bantam. I have always had very successful hatches (there seems to be a far higher 'conversion' rate when you use a broody hen rather than an incubator). In my last 4 hatches I have only lost one chick and that was in my most recent hatch. I believe the chick was trampled on by her mum as she was fine for the first day, a good size and seemingly healthy. The mum I was using is a black copper maran - a first time mum and a bit clumsy. I think its better to use bantams who are lighter and have great mothering instincts. But others may feel differently.
Certainly chicks raised by mums are not as friendly as incubator chicks. But on the plus side they are very self sufficient.The best part is I dont have to worry about incubator temperature, heat lamps, teaching them to eat and all that nonsense. Mum does everything!