5 Weeks on and they're growing fast, even better than the books say. Sadly I lost 4 chicks and nearly lost a fifth but she was fine. Getting rid of red mite in the big hen house

The chicks are growing fast now, no longer little and yellow they're white and growers now.

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

Well, the fat little chicks are now 3 weeks old, well 23 days to be exact! And they look HUGE! I was a bit late in weighing them. Should have done it Friday on their 3 week birthday!! lol

On Monday, I went out to the bigger of the brooder sheds, and when I opened the door, there was what looked like bits of red paper lying on the floor. I was puzzled for a second, then realised, it wasn’t paper, it was the bits of the infra red lightbulb I had in there!

Well, 2 weeks on, and the chicks are getting fatter by the minute, or so it seems. Most of them are more than the recommended weights, but the hatchery said to still feed them ad lib!

Well, after all the panic of the past week, it has gone almost unnoticed that one of the new point of lay hens produced her first egg!

We thought they would never lay any!  If the information I was given was correct, they are now 23 weeks old and should have started before now!  Anyway, its now Saturday 22nd September, and we have had 4 eggs off of one of the new girls, and another came into lay today!  Just another 10 to go, and that's another dozen eggs a day!

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On Tuesday, I thought I had to do something quick, perhaps if I had another small 6 x 4 shed, I could separate the stressed chicks into 2 lots, but the only other shed was hubbys workshop, which is much larger, and full of his tools and workbenches etc.

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Well, the second week in the brooders started well.  The chicks in the converted greenhouse seemed happy, temperatures were okay, so I thought all would be well.

Then on Sunday, hubby called me to say that there was blood on some of the chicks in the greenhouse!  When we looked, there were quite a few with blood at the base of their tails, and as we looked, other chicks were chasing them around, pecking at their tails, and in some cases their wings!

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Well, the chicks are 1 week old today! And we transferred half of them to their new home in the converted greenhouse! I tried weighing them, as at one week old, they are supposed to be between 60 and 68 gms, but the ones I managed to weigh (fidgety little things what they are!) were between 65 and 86 gms!!! This past week they have eaten between them nearly 40kgs of chick crumb! I called the hatchery to check that we are supposed to be feeding them ad lib, yes they said, give them as much as they want!!!! When my friend John works out how I can put some pics on here, as I'm a bit thick where this sort of stuff is concerned! I'll show you the photos I took. Their little wings are so much bigger now, and when we got back from the feed supplier with their latest bag of chick crumbs, (half a ton arriving next Tuesday!) one chick was sitting on top of the water bell which is over a foot high!!!! We also bought 12 Bovans Goldline POL's 3 weeks ago. They are a cross between a Rhode Island Red Cockerel and a Light Sussex Hen, so when I called the hatchery, I also mentioned the Amberlinks. What are they a cross of I asked? Oh they are the same, just the other way round. So the white Amberlinks are a cross of a Light Sussex Cockerel and a Rhode Island Red Hen. They are all sex linked, so you can tell as soon as they hatch whether they are hens or cockerels, which is very clever, but must put the old chickens sexer out of business!!!! Still, I'm just going out to the garden to make sure they are all okay, especially the ones in the greenhouse, as its their first night in there.

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