Bay Area BYCers!

[gryeyes]

Auto-waterers and automatic pop door. If I am away for a night or a couple of days, the flock won't starve, die of dehydration, or experience any unusual hazard not already part of their free-range experience.

But I have a brooder full of chicks in the house, a House Silkie, and 3 female goslings currently "brooded" on the deck.

Plus two dogs, one cat and two rabbits. The dogs and cat wear special access collars for the electronic pet door into the house.

I do have very good friends who would gladly check on my menagerie - as I have checked on theirs.

 

[juststruttin]

Juststuttin, love your photos!

Thanks

 

[flacdog]

Ooooh automatic door. Love that idea. Gotta look into that!

Anyone in berkeley here?

 

[OrpingtonManor]

I work in Berkeley, and know some people with chickens in Berkeley, but I don't live in Berkeley. The automatic waterer and automatic pop door have made life liveable. Before that, I stressed over being home every night. Now, I have left for as long as 5 days with someone just peeking out to make sure the door is closing and opening, and the waterer is filled.

I was in the process of cleaning my garage. Is anyone still making those shopping bags out of feed sacks? I know Cheryl was at one point. I have several empty Layena and Chick Starter bags. I'd rather not throw them out. If you want them, they're yours. I'll even deliver if I'm in the area running errands. I also have several King Feed Pro-Am bags. They're a different kind of material, sort of woven, so I'm not sure if they would work the same. If anyone wants them, they're also up for grabs.

If I'm supposed to post these somewhere else, let me know.

~Steff

 

[tgooberbutt]

I'm in Oakland. I have the coop door automated on a regular house timer, and also a wireless camera in the coop. Door opens by itself at 6am, and closes at 9pm these days. When I'm out of town, I check the camera online and call up a neighbor if a chicken didn't make it back before curfew (it usually only happens with daylight savings!). There's a nice tutorial on BYC I followed on how to make the automated door/timer:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/automatic-pop-hole-opener

Good luck!

Hi everyone, Jenny here from Berkeley! First time poster... long time reader, haha! I lived in Oakland for 15 years before moving to Berkeley late last year. I've had a backyard flock for going on 10 years now... just added a few ducks this spring.

So I was curious if anyone else out there find it really hard to get out of town? Who's gonna let the chickens / ducks out, lock them up at night so they're safe from predators, and make sure they have food and water, etc etc?

When I lived in Oakland I was in a duplex so pretty much someone was always around, and in return for eggs, my chicken-friendly neighbors would pitch in. Now that I'm in Berkeley that sweet situation is gone. With summer approaching, we're stressing out about how we're ever gonna get outta town and go camping!

You guys have any thoughts? How do you do it? Has anyone ever brought up starting some kind of chicken-sitting co-op?

 

[Feklhr]

I'm not that high tech in Antioch, but I know a couple of chicken sitters who will assist if needed. One is here in the East Bay, and one is in the SJ Valley. I have not had occasion to use these services as yet, so I've no idea as to what they charge.

 

[lawatt]

i'm up in Sonoma Co., not in the immediate Bay Area -- but i solved this not-always-home-to-let-them-in-and-out problem by designing the henhouse *inside* a predator-proof run, using hardware cloth for the wire. whenever i'm home, i let the flock out to free-range, but if i'm not home, they have a large run to putter around in, and then come dark, they put themselves to bed, there's no need to be there to put them in at night or out again in the morning.

just in case you have the flexibility to change their living arrangements around!

 

[flacdog]

Thanks for the link to the door timer thing. Will definitely need to study that.

If I can get that set up then the chickens will be set. Unfortunately I added 4 ducks to my flock this year, too (what was I thinking?!?!?). I love the ducks - they are super fun and have lots of personality - but they're not so good about going back to the coop like the hens. Sigh.

Seriously any berkeley / oakland / Emeryville folks here???

 

[tgooberbutt]

Thanks for the link to the door timer thing. Will definitely need to study that.

If I can get that set up then the chickens will be set. Unfortunately I added 4 ducks to my flock this year, too (what was I thinking?!?!?). I love the ducks - they are super fun and have lots of personality - but they're not so good about going back to the coop like the hens. Sigh.

Seriously any berkeley / oakland / Emeryville folks here???

I am literally right at the intersection of the three cities about 5 min away from Berkeley Bowl. Lots of chicken owners around here. PM me if you want to set up the occasional chicken sitting!

 

[jeremy]

Ooooh automatic door. Love that idea. Gotta look into that!

Anyone in berkeley here?

Thanks for the link to the door timer thing. Will definitely need to study that.

If I can get that set up then the chickens will be set. Unfortunately I added 4 ducks to my flock this year, too (what was I thinking?!?!?). I love the ducks - they are super fun and have lots of personality - but they're not so good about going back to the coop like the hens. Sigh.

Seriously any berkeley / oakland / Emeryville folks here???

I'm in Oakland, deep East Oakland to be exact.

ETA: Unless you're super attached/set on the ducks- can them. I raised ducks for almost a year in hopes of getting duck eggs and eventually processing dranks for dinner... it was nothing but a head ache. All they did was EAT and make a wet mess everywhere. I had 8 hens and only got about 3-4 eggs a week. Chickens are definitely so much easier and surprisingly cleaner. Not to mention "smarter"... they can put themselves away at night and don't just run around screaming once it gets dark.

At least that was my experience.

Oh and they were LOUD!