Using an incubator will allow for complete temp and humidity control.  The environment can have variances that you cannot always see or record.  I hope this helps.

Cooking them (from what I hear) is pretty easy.

HOWEVER

My first clutch of chondro eggs I was pretty ill-prepared for, so I went maternal, and was REALLY happy it shook out that way. There's nothing like seeing mom do her job and watching babies poking out of mom's coils.

I'd recommend everyone go maternal at least once in their career :)

I'd recommend everyone go maternal at least once in their career :)

+1 to that.

I personally use an incubator, but I have nothing against maternal and I think you can go either way and be fine.  I also fully agree with Aaron about trying maternal at least once!

I've gone white-trash incubator with both of my clutches because I'm a raging control freak who likes to candle the eggs daily.  I've decided to suck up my AR tendencies and go MI next year. every time I see pictures of little pythonlets creeping out around mom's coils it makes me melt. I want to see this in person.  I also know a ton of people that have done this very successfully for multiple seasons, so I trust that there's less chance of damage to the eggs with mom than with an artifical setup.  

I go both ways.

My preference is maternal, but reality has an incubator at the ready at the beginning of the season. Artificial is good for seeing exactly what's going on, with the help of more experienced breeders you'll get a really good understanding of the incubation process. Maternal is awesome for the lazy, just make sure momma is coiled up on those eggs and forget about them for the next 55-60 days. You can see why I prefer the latter, plus watching the entire process of momma incubating is absolutely fascinating.

I haven't tried maternal yet, but would like to.  I have heard that it's a little harder because you can not control humidity as easily. I do artificial, It's worked well for me in my first season and will probably do it again this year. I had three ball python clutches with 100% hatch rate. My carpets, one had a really bad clutch, so only three hatched, but my big girl laid 20 eggs and two were infertile, the rest hatched out perfectly. I like being able to check on the eggs and candle them, it gives me a little comfort. But I would love to see mom do her job.

Either way you go just remember to keep your temps correctly and you humidity high. That's what really matters, mom will protect her eggs and regulate the temps as best as she can, but you really need to make sure its perfect for her is you go maternal.

If you go artifical, just make sure you don't drown or bake your eggs!!!

Thanks everyone!!!