Family pot, you're in the big blind, raise to create dead money?

[beekeeper]

This is a general question for small-stakes, B&M, NL hold'em games.

Strategy question for this scenario:

You are in the big blind, and several players limp in, so that there are many players and an unraised pot when it gets to you.

First, what size bet (1 bet=BB) will it take to get most of the limpers out and create dead money?

Secondly, with what kinds of hands to you want to raise?

I assume that you would just check if you held these kinds of hands: small suited connectors, Ax (small), small pairs. Is this assumption wrong?

Thanks.