Well, would you believe the chicks are actually 4 weeks old now!  The transformation is remarkable.  They are no longer chicks, but little chickens.  My friend came over to see them on Thursday.  “Oh,” she said “I was expecting to see little yellow things!”  “They were for about 2 days” said hubby, “but then they started to get their little white wings.”  I read in an old smallholder magazine that once past the 4 week stage, they don’t call them chicks now, they are growers, or pullets, so I don’t have any little yellow fluffy chicks anymore!  Well, not until this lot are grown and sold (hopefully!!) 

My brother phoned me this morning to say there was a 10×8 shed on freecycle, so I’ve emailed the lady to see if she will let us have it.  Hubby has started to extend the big henhouse by another 16ft, but he hurt his leg last week and has to keep stopping for a rest.  So the shed will be 34ft x 6ft, but still won’t be big enough for the 300 when they are bigger.  Here’s hoping that lady lets me have her shed.  Then they may just be big enough!  Especially as I want to put 12 of them in with my new POL’s so I’ll have 24 layers.

When I put the wardrobe in the shed to use as another brooder, I’d put some ground cover stuff (terram) down to put their shavings on to help keep them warm, and I made sure that there were no frayed edges for the chicks to get hold of.  Well, just shows you what they get up to.  I went out to see them yesterday, and one was walking around with a long strand of terram hanging out of its mouth.  I tried to get hold of it to pull it out, but the chick moved away.  I finally caught the strand and gently pulled it, but the chick had a tight hold on it and wouldn’t let go.  So I kept pulling gently, and the strand started to come out of its mouth, but to my horror, the chick had swallowed about a foot of this strand, its a wonder she didn’t die!  silly chick.  I don’t know where it came from, as I can’t see any loose bits around on the floor of the brooder!

I’m so glad we got the larger drinkers, as now I can hang them up, the water stays a bit cleaner, instead of being choked up with shavings and chick poo! 

I weighed some of them on Friday, their 4 week birthday, and apart from a couple which are slightly smaller, most of them weighed between 250 and 350 gms.  The ideal is 275 to 310, so they are doing fine.  Still don’t stop eating though!  They’ve got through 100kgs of chick crumbs since last Saturday!

I should be able to start putting them on growers pellets now, but there are still several bags of chick crumb left, so I think I will wait until next week, then start to mix the 2 feeds together to wean them over gradually.