Yep, 11 weeks since we got the chicks, and many of them now weigh over 1kg!  Everything I read tells me to feed them ad lib, but they are eating 40kgs of rearers pellets every day!  I worked out from the info the hatchery gave me that they would need 2 tonnes of food from day 1 until roughly 18-20 weeks of age when they should be going to their new homes, but there was only enough left to last them until mid December, so we've had to buy another tonne!  But I've started to turn their red light off which I used to leave on overnight.  And they've stopped eating through the night now its dark in there.

Of course we've got to have enough to feed the mouse that's in the storage container too!  It bit into one of the bags and spread loads of food all over the place, then pooed all over it, so I had to chuck it away.  We had these modern mousetraps, but they are useless.  So we've got to get some more.  I have a recipe for a homemade poison, which a nice member put on the allotment site, but hubby isn't sure about using it in case exploding mice make a mess everywhere!!!!

Well, the little beaks have been running around outside for over a week now, and they STILL don't seem to realise when its bedtime!  They just stand around in the dark, sometimes laying down where they are to go to sleep!  So getting them in is a 2 handed job.  We have to take a spare bit of stock fencing down with us.  We get behind them and herd them towards the door, then I stand near the door while hubby herds them forward and I pick them up and put them inside!!!  Silly chicks.

But they love being outside.  They rush around like exocet missiles.  They put their heads down, necks forward and they re away!!!! Zoooooom!!!!!!  They don't care who they knock over in the process either!

But they are settling down, so we aren't getting too many exciting things happen now, so that's about all to report for this week.