In the wild-and in flocks where mother hens hatch and brood chicks-clutches of two to twelve eggs keep warm and moist under a hen until they pip. These birds are beloved by humans, who have kept them as domestic livestock for about ten thousand years. There are hundreds of species of chickens scratching around the planet today, but they all belong to one single species: Gallus gallus. Selecting the best incubator for the job is about considering chicken biology with the individual needs of the chicken keeper and flock. Best for Hatching Varied Poultry: Magicfly 40-egg Incubator.Best Small Sized with Extra Features: Kebonnixs 12-egg Incubator.Best Automatic: Farm Innovators Incubator.Best for Beginners: HBLife Fully Automatic Incubator.Chicken keepers must weigh the best feed, the best housing, and even the best incubator for hatching eggs and raising chicks. Fresh-from-the-nest eggs are one of the major perks of chicken keeping-but cultivating a flock comes with many decisions. Thanks to chicken domestication, acquiring that perfectly jammy boiled egg to elevate a steaming bowl of ramen no longer means stalking wild nests. Some of those australopithecine ancestors scaled trees for a particularly nutritious prize: eggs lifted right out of birds’ nests.

Their fossilized limbs and teeth make it clear they ate mostly plants-with a bit of scavenged meat on the side. The earliest hominid ancestors lived about 4 million years ago.

Humans have loved eggs since well before we were really even human.

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