R.S.'s Diary 2025
28.03.2025
This week has had good spells of warm weather throughout the day but cold at night with a few foggy days making for high humidity. With my little fan heater I have been able to keep the humidity to around the 70% mark, I would prefer it to be a bit lower at around 60% to 65% which makes for a nice condition for the borders, I will keep trying but the wind direction is the key to doing well north and easterly winds cause problems with colder damper weather whilst south and westerly winds are much warmer and drier so fingers crossed for the latter.
Feeding is going well with a mixture of Perle Morbide, Easyyem egg food and couscous in equal portions also soaked seed for chicks above 6/7 days to stop loose droppings and messing the nests up, which happens to chicks under 6/7 day old, if I do get this problem I give quarter of a teaspoon of Epsom salts in the drinker for two days.
I have continued with the ph. in the water to just below 6ph to try and stop bacterial problems, which seems to be working.
I have a few nests with fertile eggs due this week so fingers crossed
Some hens are still messing about and look like they’re just not settled so I will be swopping these hens’ cages over to see if a different location is more settling.
Fertility has picked up from last week with a bit more Fetura 12 in the water for the cocks making them even louder but the worry this is making their fitness go over the top and attack the hens instead of singing them down to tread, so it's observation time to see if I have got it right.
21.03.2025
This week has turned from cold to warm and it’s confusing the birds some are sitting tight others are looking like they’re going to leave the eggs, so I have been very vigilant and if I think they are going to leave the eggs I will remove them and put them in my incubator which is only used for this purpose.
I have had another few chicks hatch this week and feeding is going well apart from one young hen, who looked like she didn't know what to do, so I mixed up some A19 hand mix with Prolyte water and this combination was fed to the two chicks using a kiddies paint brush, I dip the bristles in the hand mix and then put into the open beaks I find this the easiest and less messy way of doing it ,I used to use a syringe but it not easy to get it right with sometimes too much going in.
The cocks are bouncing fit and doing their job filling eggs.
The hens are a bit unsure where to build but generally it's not going to bad.
The ph of the water which I have lowered to just below 6ph for 4 days a week has got the birds in good condition and looking well.
I am feeding Easyyem soft food mixed with Perle Morbide and pea porridge in equal amounts and it’s going down well
Also soaked seed, which is soaked overnight then thoroughly rinsed and given to any hen feeding chicks over 6 days old as I find you may lose chicks if fed earlier in my experience.
Fertility is not as great as I would like it this may be due to me not wanting to get the birds fat and I will address this in the coming weeks
14/03/2025
This week has started off with southern winds which were a bit warmer allowing me to open the doors and windows but then it turned cold with fog, snow and rain
So, the door and windows have been closed as the temperature has dropped to 3°C through the day and -1°C through the night
I have a little electric fan heater on a timer coming on for 5 minutes every 2hrs which keeps the humidity below 70%
I have had some chicks hatch this week and are getting fed on Perle Morbide and Easyyem egg food at a 50/50 ratio and they are taking it well, at 5 days I introduce soaked seed which I soak overnight then rinse in the morning and give it to the hens, I don't sprout it, I continually rinse the soaked seed throughout day so it's fresh at every 4 hourly food change.
I have two very good young cocks but they have both failed to fill eggs whilst watching them tread they haven't got a clue what to do, so all I can do is let the hen sit and remove the cock. After two weeks hopefully can get an experienced cock to go with the hens, of course this will be my second choice for the hens, if possible, later on I will try these cocks again.
I am using wooden nest pans and have found the borders like these better than clay pans they are hung on a screw about perch height in an attempt to stop chicks getting pulled out of the nest because I find when the hens fly up from the nest this tends to happen.
07.03.2025
This week has seen good weather with sunshine and lower humidity which is very welcome.
A few changes were made This year and one was blackout blinds on the windows which gives complete control of daylight with my LED lights inside the bird room and as my neighbour has put up a security light bright enough to light up Wembley this has blocked out anything to disturb the birds at night, the blinds are opened first thing in the morning to give a little bit more light in.
Last year we touched on the quality of seed and that how small the seeds were in the mix, as I don't think that nutritionally there is enough goodness to get the birds into condition, I have been topping seed up every day and the birds have been cherry picking the best seeds which in years gone by would have made the birds fat, but no longer find this so.I have kept to 4 days of ph. control of the water to 6ph and on other days its 7.3ph
If you live in a high ph. area this could prove invaluable, as if the ph is too high it can unbalance the gut which has a ph. of 4.5 approximately.
Vitamins are given until the hens are carrying and the cocks are dancing and singing
I have been giving greens in the form of savoy cabbage ground up with a teaspoon of wheatgerm oil to aid fertility. My birds are looking really well on this system
So far, half the hens are sitting and apart from one the others are carrying and looking interested.
The first two nests are clear which I expected as I didn't see any treading but this sometimes happens early doors however the next two nest are full so fingers crossed.
Hopefully this weather continues with the humidity staying low as this will help the chicks in the eggs grow properly, as to much high humidity can stop the chick’s development before hatching
01.03.2025
This season has started if with much less rain than last year but very cold with North and east winds split up by a few scattered days of warmer weather from the south, overall the humidity has been lower than last year around the 80% mark to reduce it to 60/70%, I have a small fan heater running for 5 minutes every 1.1/2 hours which is giving me that reduction to 65-70% humidity, with lower humidity bacteria, mould and fungal spores do not form as occurs when it's 80% +.
I have altered a few more things like lighting which I set to 10hrs on the 14th of December, then as I had a holiday in January I put the lighting to 12 hrs on the 4th January before I went, and on my return I added 2 more hours on the 28th of January making 14hrs, a week later I put it up to 14 1/2 hrs which is where it will stay for the breeding season .
Also I am giving Ph control to the water 4 days a week, along with vitamins, reason for PH control 4 days is so the birds don't get accustomed to it continually. The benefits are hopefully less problems when hens are feeding chicks as the acidity of the Ph control makes it a bit more hostile for bacteria , mould and fungal infections, the water is tested using a ph tester which costs about £6- £10.The ph I am looking to be is 6 or slightly under but no higher.
So far the borders are settling down to breed and I have a few nests set, so far things look much better than last year at thus time.
