Chicks again

You can guess that we are rather preoccupied with chicks at the moment here in the Fens! Having about 29 of them (18 + 11) at early stages of development does rather concentrate the mind.

The 11 older ones have just spent their first night outside. I left them in the run, but put a cloth over the roof to give them some protection - in case it rained - today I will be extending the run and giving them a wee house to go into at night. It was too late to do that last night in the dark when I decided that last night would be the night!

The 18 at the just-hatched stage need another box! We usually keep them all together, but there are a few too many for comfort in there now that they are growing and moving around more, so today's job for them will be another clean out, and splitting half of them into another box. So that I can put them all back together when they go out, each time I clean them out, I will mix them up, as otherwise they may form themselves into two distinct flocks and then fight when I bring them back together in a couple of weeks' time.