I think that's probably overkill considering wild birds constantly bring some sort of virus, bacteria or disease in literally every time they stop in your yard. The neighbor 4 miles down the road who bought some hens at a flea market or auction? Those same wild birds just visited them and dragged disease to your house. Plus it's springtime, wild birds along with their diseases are in full swing. Not to mention you have no way of knowing if any auction birds or adults you get have been exposed at some point in their life and are still carriers. Add to that the fact that some diseases are carried in the egg to the hatchlings.
RetriedArmyWife, there's literally thousands upon thousands of different respiratory diseases in chickens. Some can be primary and some can be secondary to other things that ran the birds immune system down. It's just impossible to tell what it is without culturing it. And by the time you get the results back the bird is either dead or better. I normally use Tylan 50 injections at the 1st sign of respiratory problems. I like it because I saw 1st hand how well it *works. 1/2 cc per normal-big sized chicken and 1/4 cc per bantam for 6 days injected into their breast muscle (their left side). You could always use their leg muscle if you can't bear to do the breast muscle.
I'm still really wanting one. I'm too scared to use my Little Giant again. Do you have something to measure your humidity? What's your hatch rate with yours? I've got my LF Faverolles boy separated with just his 3 LF Fav girls and would sure like to hatch eggs out without having to drive to Shawnee to take them to Carl. I need something idiot-proof.Mitzi, oredered the brinsea mini, the most basic they had, well they sent me the advance, which is a little more expensive, i called them and they knocked some off the price since it was their mistake, and i love the little thing- just pop em in there, add water every couple of days, and is a no-brainer...
