![]() ![]() The one I’m in is the length of a jumbo jet. Right now Barton has 197,000 chicks across several sheds. ![]() The broilers, as meat chickens are known (“layers” lay eggs), will then be trucked to a poultry processor and on to customers including Sainsbury’s. In the next six or seven weeks, they will multiply in weight 45 times to reach their target of 2.4kg (5lb 5oz). The chicks arrived two days ago in a lorry from a huge hatchery. They now produce more than a million birds a year. The couple took over and grew Karen’s father’s chicken farm not far from the Quantock Hills. We shuffle rather than walk lest we squash one.īarton, a former TV engineer, quit the BBC 25 years ago to move here with his wife, Karen, a nurse. Chicks climb over our boots, pecking at everything in search of food. “They’re not all named!” says Simon Barton, raising his voice above the din. They move like leaves blown around a town square. When one breaks into a run, dozens more follow. The yellow balls of fluff are still adjusting to their new home. A giant metal shed in Somerset is alive with the chirps of more than 17,000 three-day-old chicks. ![]()
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