Up to me neck in muck and pellets!!!

Well chick crumbs actually, but doesn't quite have the same ring to it does it? lol

Decided to clean the chicks out today, as although their 'deep litter' looked okay, it was smelling a bit of ammonia, which was a bit strange, as it looked dry, usually only starts to smell of ammonia when it gets damp. So, took all the drinkers and feeders out. We had to buy them some new feeders, as they are getting too tall now for the chick trough feeders we bought when they were tiny. These ones are made from plastic, which OH said he's never liked, but they arrived yesterday, and he is very impressed. They are so much lighter than the galvanised ones we use for the big chooks, and will be much easier to clean. We also bought 3 new plastic drinkers for the chooks in the wardrobe brooder and cold frame hospital! The small ones we bought initially, we had to stand on blocks of wood as they don't hang, but the chicks throw up so much of their shavings, that by morning, they can't get any water out as the drinkers are choked with shavings and poo! At least the new ones hang up, and I only need to give them their fresh water twice a day instead of about 4 times!

So I got into the brooder shed, with my small shovel, and very gently and carefully started to get the old shavings off the floor. You'd think I was trying to kill them all! The noise they were making, and as I was working my way around the shed, the silly chicks wouldn't move around to get out of my way, they just bunched up together, about 4 high! I could hear the squeals of panic from the ones at the bottom of the pile, so I had to keep stopping what I was doing to lift the top 3 layers of chicks off, and pick the others up as they were just laying there!!! Once they stood up though, they realised they were actually still alive, and ran off with the rest!

Once it was all nice and clean, I put the clean shavings in and replaced all the feeders and drinkers. Then they all went wild, dustbathing in the new shavings!! After I put the clean shavings in the smaller shed, I put a feed trough back in as 1 big feeder wasn't enough for all 75 chicks, but when I went back a bit later to see how they were, they had covered it in shavings. You couldn't even see it!!

The new feeders hold 12kg of chick crumbs, plus the chicks in the big shed have 2 feed troughs as well, and after only one day, it was almost empty! They can eat for England these chicks! But when I was cleaning them out, its surprising how much chick crumb they waste, but you can't re-use it as its covered in poo and shavings. No wonder they are costing so much to feed!

Whenever I open the shed doors, there are always up to 10 chicks sitting on the hardboard sides of the brooder, which are 2ft high! And when they have a mad few minutes exercise, they fly all over the place, and can easily get higher than 2ft!

At nearly 4 weeks of age, they have nearly lost their yellow down now, and are almost all white, and you can see their tiny combs appearing. I'll take another photo of them on Friday when they are 4 weeks old.