Hovabator Incubator and Silkie hatching eggs; the newbie's plan

Ok, so raising chickens has become a bit of an obsession for me. It started with a handful of day-olds from the feed store bought on a whim, to ordering from a hatchery, to a purchase from "legit" breeders and now I want to try my hand at hatching via incubator. (No Roos allowed here) Eventually, I would like to learn enough to breed my own SQ birds, but that'll be years down the road, and a LOT more education needed to attempt that journey. After some research, I've decided to go with the Hovabator Genesis for my first attempt. It's on the higher end of my budget, but seems like it's just enough hands on, that I can be involved and learn, without killing my whole batch. Lol I figure I can invest in a higher quality incubator once I learn the basics, and then I can start buying more expensive hatching eggs. As far as acquiring hatching eggs go, I'm not finding a lot on the local Craigslist, so my next idea is checking out the local farmers markets. I've heard some "natural" grocery chains also have fertile eggs that people have had some success with. Since I'm SO new at this, one or two hatching out of a dozen would be considered a "success" to me! I'm not going to cry over a poor hatch rate...(yet) My ultimate goal, for this, is hatching out a few nice silkies. (If anybody knows anyone that sells incubators, new or used, AND silkie eggs, I might just skip the practice run and go all in!) I'd like a little higher quality eggs than hatchery stock, but have no idea how/where to get those. E-bay seems like it can be shady, but still not as bad as CL. Anyway.... So for my practice run, any breed will do, for now. Once I get a success, I'm going for the good quality eggs. This is my plan. Is there any recommendations you guys can think of as far as acquiring the eggs go? Or the best place to find the Havabator? Is "used" a really bad idea? Or any of it? Is there any place that sell those things together? I've been thinking about and planning this for months. I've put a lot of time into research, but I've found the best info/advice so far, has come from you guys; the people who share the same passion as I do! I'm so EGGcited! Thanks for reading!

Sounds like a cool plan! I'm going to be buying a better incubator as well, and working with more hatching eggs.

I bought my eggs of Ebay, and it does work. Just be prepared to handle with extra care as the pressure change from being shipped via jet can make the airsac detach. You can also get some great incubators off both Amazon and Ebay (the two places we always buy from with great success). Lots of hobby farmers breed silkies and I'm sure they would love to give you some hatching eggs. You could try posting a wanted add. These hobby farmers choose for healthy, friendly birds. Careful, as there are a ton of silkies that don't fit the breed standard at all. I have seen some huge birds with huge combs and wattles that barely even look like silkies.

Keep us updated on your success! I can't wait until I can start breeding my birds.

Best of luck!