Just bought a used Little Giant (stop groaning) still air over the weekend, as I would like to have some rarer auto-sexing breeds, but don't want to spend oodles on them just to have them die in shipping. Incubating seemed to fit the bill. My plan is to bid on some really cheap eggs on ebay, practice on them first (sounds a little diabolical actually), sell what ends up hatching on craigslist, them move on from there, depending on my results. Since the grandkiddies are coming to visit over Spring Break, I thought it would be fun for them to participate, hence my plan of attack has been moved up a wee bit. Just bid on and won an ebay auction for ... 10+ Purebred eggs from any of the following breeds ... AMERAUCANA, BARRED ROCK, BUFF ORPS, BUFF ROCK, LAVENDER ORPS, BLUE ORPS, BLUE WYANDOTTE, BLUE MARAN OR SILVER PHOENIX . They should arrive Monday (kiddies will be here Sunday), so I have turned on the incubator to see how its regulated, etc. Hopefully it is in tip top shape! I reaize that LG's are a little harder to regulate, but I wanted to practice on something more economical before moving on to the more expensive ones, plus who knows, maybe I won't like this incubating thing at all! (Yeah, right.) I will lurk in this thread until then and learn as much as possible from all of you terrific well-seasoned incubators! Of course this thread is like all of the others, y'know ... for every 5 members who answer a queston, we get 6 different answers! Ha! LOL. I am hoping my fellow Mission Impossible Egg Caravan Members will guide me along, too, of course!
Did you sterilize the incubator? I run the bottom pieces through the dishwasher without heat then set out in the sunshine. Does it have a fan? Turner?
Thank you for reminding me about sterilization. It does have a turner, but no fan. It is a still air LG. Not the best I know, but for practicing it will teach me a lot I think. I only paid $2.30 for the ebay eggs, so I'm not gonna freak if they don't all hatch of course, but certainly don't want a disaster to happen either. I had my first casualty with chicks last week and don't want to go through too much of that for sure. (Even my husband, who is not so much into my chicken hobby, was upset when we lost that chick.) I thought I would see how this hatch goes, follow this thread closely, and if needed, add a fan to Little Giant. Hubbie's an engineer, so perhaps he could help me with that. (If you are seeing this, Dear Husband, that is a very large HINT!) Thanks for the sterilization advice!
