Lara J
Chirping
- Aug 22, 2022
- 21
- 88
- 64
Hi all, thought perhaps folks here might have advice for me. I am soon heading out of town on vacation for 5 days. I have an auto-door, treadle feeder, secure coop and run, large nipple waterer, generally the setup is pretty hands-off. I also have a family member who acts as our “chicken-sitter”, meaning he comes by once or twice a day to check up on things and collect eggs. Normally this is fine, BUT one of my hens (Buff Orpington ugh of course) just went broody, and she’s being a little pill about it. I’ve been taking her out of the nest daily by hand but that’s not solving the larger issue, I’m researching all the good ideas on here for breaking bloodiness and will try them, but I don’t have time before I leave to do any of them to completion.
So here is the question: what is the simplest instructions I can give to my chicken-sitter that they can do once or twice a day which will minimize health risks for her for five days? Will she be ok as-is and I should just have him keep an eye on her and when I get back I can broody break her then? Or should I block off the egg box and sort of hope for the best? Or maybe just have him plop a frozen water bottle in the egg box with her each day?
I’m aiming for the simplest instructions possible and for him to not have to do much of anything physically to her like try to move her since she’s pretty obnoxious right now. (PS it’s actually super adorable honestly but don’t tell her I said that.)
Willing chicken sitters are hard to come by! He’s always been great at helping me out with pet sitting and I really want to give him good instructions so that this isn’t a horrible experience for him.
The set-up: We have an egglu coop thing that’s up off the ground about 2 feet and it has a separate laying box part inside which can be closed off with a little sliding inside door; that laying box area also has a door to the outside for collecting eggs. So it’d probably be really easy for him to open the outside door and plop something cold in with her daily OR really easy for me to block it off entirely. Or am I overthinking? Will she just be ok being left broody for a week?
Ps weather over that time period looks like a mix of sunny and some showers, lowest temp at night will be 65 and highest day temp will be 87.
Thoughts?
So here is the question: what is the simplest instructions I can give to my chicken-sitter that they can do once or twice a day which will minimize health risks for her for five days? Will she be ok as-is and I should just have him keep an eye on her and when I get back I can broody break her then? Or should I block off the egg box and sort of hope for the best? Or maybe just have him plop a frozen water bottle in the egg box with her each day?
I’m aiming for the simplest instructions possible and for him to not have to do much of anything physically to her like try to move her since she’s pretty obnoxious right now. (PS it’s actually super adorable honestly but don’t tell her I said that.)
Willing chicken sitters are hard to come by! He’s always been great at helping me out with pet sitting and I really want to give him good instructions so that this isn’t a horrible experience for him.
The set-up: We have an egglu coop thing that’s up off the ground about 2 feet and it has a separate laying box part inside which can be closed off with a little sliding inside door; that laying box area also has a door to the outside for collecting eggs. So it’d probably be really easy for him to open the outside door and plop something cold in with her daily OR really easy for me to block it off entirely. Or am I overthinking? Will she just be ok being left broody for a week?
Ps weather over that time period looks like a mix of sunny and some showers, lowest temp at night will be 65 and highest day temp will be 87.
Thoughts?
