Well, the 2nd batch of Amberlinks are now a week old, all doing well, and so far, fingers crossed, no casualties!!!!

They are enjoying life in their new extended brooder shed.  They have 2 heat lamps in there as its a much larger space, with 3 feeders and 4 drinkers.  I haven't used the trough feeders this time as after only 2 days, the other chicks were using the troughs as perches!  So we bought 3 5kgs feeders as you can see on the pictures to follow.  The chicks started using them straight away, and although I've put 2 of the small red and white drinkers in the shed, they don't use them much as when they scratch around, they cover them in wood shavings and then can't get at the water, but they like the slightly larger green and white drinkers, even though they still throw shavings over them too, and I have to keep cleaning them out.  They are hanging up, but I can't put them up too high or the chicks wont be able to reach the water!  I have put the small drinkers on egg trays though and that helps a bit.

I weighed them today, and they are between 50 and 70 gms, so that isn't bad from a 39gms hatch weight a week ago!

What about these for a set of wings then?  Not bad for a week old eh??????

They all seem happy enough don't they?

The Babcock's are doing well too.  34 have now already gone to their new homes, and all the rest are pre-booked, so they will go as soon as they reach point of lay.  I've also got orders for 39 of the new Amberlinks too! 

Keeping chickens is now getting very popular, and its not surprising when you hear stories like the one yesterday about the free range farm in norfolk, or should I say supposedly free range farm?  That farmer should be ashamed of himself keeping chickens in those conditions!  It's not surprising that I can't keep up with my egg orders!  I wanted to keep at least 8 of the Babcock's to add to my 10 laying hens, but I've got too many orders and nto enough chickens!  But hopefully I can keep some of the new Amberlinks! lol

We had to get a new freezer which arrived yesterday for our meat chickens, some more of them are going tomorrow!  It will be interesting to see how much they weigh now!  the cockerals are like baby elephants!  I haven't weighed them for over a week as they don't fit in anything I've got, so they have to wait now until they are culled, then I'll weigh them.

I'll let you know how we go on.