Are You Tied Down by Your Birds? What about Vacations?

[brae09]

Ducks and geese are a lot of fun. We take good care of them. It is gratifying to see them happy. But we found ourselves pretty much homebound. It is hard to leave for a few days for a camping trip. Typical daily chores: letting them out in the morning, feeding, changing water, and closing them up at night. We can probably set something up to provide feed and water for a few days. Perhaps add an automated door to the coop. Don't know if they can be trained to get back in the coop by themselves at night.

How do you handle this aspect of poultry keeping? Hire someone when you are gone? Automation? What if we have only geese? Would it be easier because geese are bigger and less prone to predation?

 

[noregerts]

Ducks and geese are a lot of fun. We take good care of them. It is gratifying to see them happy. But we found ourselves pretty much homebound. It is hard to leave for a few days for a camping trip. Typical daily chores: letting them out in the morning, feeding, changing water, and closing them up at night. We can probably set something up to provide feed and water for a few days. Perhaps add an automated door to the coop. Don't know if they can be trained to get back in the coop by themselves at night.

How do you handle this aspect of poultry keeping? Hire someone when you are gone? Automation? What if we have only geese? Would it be easier because geese are bigger and less prone to predation?

I agree, it's a worry. If we are just going to be gone for the weekend we make sure they have food and water, and we have an automatic coop door opener we can operate from our phones. My husband is techy so actually I have a live camera in the coop too.
If we are gone longer than that though we have a local teenager who has chickens come over and check on things. We pay her $20/day. I want goats but haven't gotten them for this very reason, I don't feel like I could leave town and leave them.

 

[sourland]

I hire a licensed 'pet sitter' to come in and take care of the dogs and birds. It's cheaper than boarding the dogs, and she does a great job. Some folks have good luck with hiring recommended 4 H kids.

 

[Alina28]

I am planning to go on a week long vacation so i was thinking of hiring someone to do the job for some pay. I too feel a lot home bound because of my animals but in the end when i see them hapoy i feel like it is worth it . I have ducks, chickens , quails and a few types of birds and parrots and they constantly require someone to take care of them due to which i rarely go anywhere. And if i do i usually instruct my mom to do the work but she will be with me on this family vacation so i would need to hire someone. My chickens and ducks are very obedient and go in their coop on their own as soon as the sun sets.

 

[IamRainey]

I've gone away as long as 2 weeks.

I leave a couple 7 gallon water reservoirs for my small flock and 3 full feeders (2 of them will hold 20# of feed each). I have someone stop by every few days to gather eggs and check on the feed and water.

I wouldn't do it in the heat of Summer. If we had rough Winters I wouldn't do it then either. But for just a weekend, I wouldn't bat an eye.

 

[DobieLover]

I have a friend that shares a house with two other family members. She comes to my house and sits dogs, cat, and chickens. It is like a mini vacation for her to live here for a few days. I leave her feeding instructions and phone numbers, including vet. She enjoys the time away from her home and being a farm girl for a few days. She won't take money, so I bring back a t-shirt, mug, or other item I think she would like.

I love this idea. I need to find someone like this.
As of now, our neighbors are actually three families (all related) living in three separate areas of a duplex house. They are all animal lovers and the older couple living in the lower level "apartment" are up on deck to come take care of the flock for free whenever I find the time to go on vacation. An Alaskan cruise is very much wanted next year. But I don't like imposing on them. I don't like that they won't take money. Allowing someone a little mini-vacation doing something they love without the long term commitment of owning their own animals seems like a huge win-win to me.

 

[DuckyBabies]

We leave for a week for our vacation in the fall. Luckily, my dad lives next door so we get him to let the ducks and dogs out and in. If we didn’t have him next door, it would be a lot harder to manage. As you know with ducks, they love their water. It’s impossible to keep it clean for even a day, let alone a few days! I would suggest finding someone you really trust to get the job done and make sure everyone is taken care of. I totally get the tied down feeling as well!

 

[2much2do]

I have a friend that shares a house with two other family members. She comes to my house and sits dogs, cat, and chickens. It is like a mini vacation for her to live here for a few days. I leave her feeding instructions and phone numbers, including vet. She enjoys the time away from her home and being a farm girl for a few days. She won't take money, so I bring back a t-shirt, mug, or other item I think she would like.

 

[The goose girl]

I too feel tied down by my two geese - but I wouldn't trade my daily fun with them for anything! Suffice to say my health and finances do not allow much traveling anyway, so it's not that big a sacrifice.

Right now we are two people sharing the geese, but as the other one just turned 79, this arrangement will not last forever. I have another friend who will help me in case of emergencies. So far I've been lucky: the only time I was alone with the care-taking for a longer period, there was only the one goose, and she started sitting on her nest within two days.

The long term plan is to get them a large grazing area that's fenced off and totally predator-proof, with a big filtered pond and some kind of automatic feeder. That way it wouldn't be necessary to let them in and out every day - the most troubling aspect of letting someone else take care of them.

 

[ocap]

try and have a system that allows you to only look at them for the number of days you expect to be gone. Try out the food and water several times before you leave to make sure they do not run out of either for that length of time. now go and try not to worry.