Humidity Variance in the UK

[chrismahon]

They are very noisy now though Dinosaw. They view nest boxes as territory and will go in to shoo another out if they are laying in there. Just our luck as well- two nest boxes and all three want the same one.

Back to humidity variance. I don't think there is much in the UK. What I have noticed here is the tongue and groove weatherboard joints are pushed to their limits. I built the coops with the boarding deliberately wet, hammered them closed and fitted them to the frame. Then let them dry out and painted them. That stops them buckling as they would if assembled dry. Sheds here are a different construction entirely. 20+mm boarding is interlocked at the corners of the building. This allows the whole assembly to grow or shrink together, so in effect in dry summer the building is an inch or so shorter than it would be in a wet winter.

[dinosaw]

Chicks started hatching yesterday morning and by this morning most of what were going to hatch had, was very crowded in the incubator so I opened it up to remove the chicks that had dried off, one egg was still in the process of pipping and I managed to get the humidity up to 80% very quickly with hot wet kitchen roll and it hatched soon after. Three still in there now drying off, one is very very weak and I doubt will pull through. The bantams look nice healthy chicks, the large fowl less so, seem generally exhausted with a couple of cases of spraddle leg and curled toe that I am treating but we will see how they develop, I have to say that in an ideal world I wouldn't have had 26 eggs in one incubator at hatching but after the mini went haywire I didn't really have much choice, will have to buy another incubator going forward. I have put more pictures up on the photos page.

[chrismahon]

Lovely looking chicks Dinosaw. Opened the doors here at 2.00am to try to get some heat out of the place. It was still 24C but falling and the humidity was an amazing 94%. Noticed one of the coops has slipped a board- the tongue has dropped out of the groove and buckled the pair when the humidity rose.

Put them on Avipro Avian, rather than a spot of yoghurt- results at this end are amazing. I think they may be coming into lay several weeks early.

[dinosaw]

I'll give it a go Chris, Pets at Home are meant to stock it so will see if I can pick some up on Sunday. Am giving the spraddled chick some 'physio" sessions helping her to stand and walk with her bandaged legs and she is already showing huge improvement.