I have done artificial incubation in the past and I just don't have good luck with it. Granted, it was a Hovabator the first time and then a mini-fridge incubator the next but both times I lost eggs and it's one of the worst feelings in the world to watch a perfectly healthy egg go downhill in the course of a week. I may not be very good at maintaining eggs in an incubator but my females are born to do it and I'm very good at maintaining the temp and humidity in my snake's tubs. That's why I prefer this route. So far I have not lost any eggs left with brooding mothers. Now I have no way of knowing if the eggs that died in an incubator in the previous years would have survived if left with their mothers but I'm far more comfortable with letting their mother look after them and I look after their mother. The first female I ever bred maternally incubated her clutch and all eggs hatched out perfectly healthy. She has done this three years in a row now and I've only lost one baby due to severe kinking that I believe came as a result to a heat spike in the room (since more than one clutch was affected with abnormalities). I'll be giving her the upcoming season off because she more than deserves a break but she ate small rats (she usually receives smalls or mediums when not on eggs) throughout and would be ready to go again if I needed her to.
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