I went away for over a month. During that time we had a hurricane. A tree fell onto the fence into the yard but the birds didn't get out of the yard. I have several feeders and waterers. I made sure they were full before I left and I had a couple of people who took turns gathering the eggs every other day and would check their feeders and waterers. I left a couple of very large shallow bowls out to catch rain water too. I don't worry about the birds drinking the rain water as they like to play and drink out of the puddles after a rain. Also I have an electric fence around the birds coops, run and yard. There are pictures on my BYC Page.