3500km journey with chickens

[Poulepoule]

I'm moving house from Perth to Adelaide, Australia. I'll be taking my chickens and a peahen with me. What is the best way to do it? I have a station wagon and was thinking of sectioning off the back for them with bedding,food and water. But it's at least a 3 day trip. Will it stress them unnecessarily? Would it be better to fly them over? Has anyone done any really long trips with chickens before?

 

[Stipenvlerk]

I'm moving house from Perth to Adelaide, Australia. I'll be taking my chickens and a peahen with me. What is the best way to do it? I have a station wagon and was thinking of sectioning off the back for them with bedding,food and water. But it's at least a 3 day trip. Will it stress them unnecessarily? Would it be better to fly them over? Has anyone done any really long trips with chickens before?

Personally I would take them with me in a dark box kind of thing with something on the bottom so they don’t slip around.
If it’s hot where you are, make sure they don’t overheat... Check on them with every pit stop, make sure they have enough water and food and clean their cage once a day at minimum. it’s a giant operation but for me that would feel better than an airplane.

It will be stressful for them one way or the other so I think in the end it’s up to you what feels best

 

[AquaDuck]

That's quite a distance!
Put them in cages so they can't fly out when you open to feed and water them. Would be terrible to do that on the side of the road. Maybe bring a landing net(? the thing you use to lift fish out of water) just in case.
Covering the car windows would be a good idea too, both to keep it cool and dark.

The longest I've driven with birds in the back is 850 km, which took us 12 hours. I used a XL dog crate and drove at night so it'd be cool. These were new birds so I left them alone until we were home.

I've found that low, slow music calms animals down during a car ride.