Caring For Chickens when You are away....

[SandyC]

I need to figure out a way to set things up so I can leave my chickens for a while. How have those of you who have chickens, manage when you want to go away for a few weeks? What are things you can do in your coop/run to make if more caretaker friendly. What do you do about eggs?
I have people who could probably look in a couple of times a week but not every day.

Thanks

 

[lovemychix]

Buy large waterers and feeders and have someone come in an check them and gather the eggs. My feeder will hold 50 lbs. Be prepared....they are expensive!!

 

[illinichick]

put out enough food and water that someone only has to check every other day. Make sure they gather eggs if any. If your hens start cannibalism, you could have several dead a day. They need to be checked on more than twice a week.

 

[Catalina]

Last summer I had to leave mine alone for 3 days. The person who promised to watch them (I was paying her too!) backed out the night before I left.
They were fine!
I, of course, worried about them the whole time.
I left 2 waterers (just in case) and a ton of food.
The nest boxes were full when I returned and I think my girls missed me, but I wouldn't be afraid to leave them for 3 days again.
But if it was more than 3 days I would have to find someone to check on them.

If you do have someone taking care of them - write out a list of everything they need to know.
I went on vacation for 2 weeks and had a very nice friend take care of my girls when they were 3 months old.
She said the list helped her a lot.
I had a list for daily feeding and watering. And then another list of treats they could and could NOT have.

 

[ScrambledAcresFarm]

If you have a nice setup and have your vacation or absence scheduled far in advance, you might be able to let your local school FFA program come out to feed, water and study the actions and behaviors of your birds! Just an off the top of my head idea!

 

[cmom]

Have extra feed and water out. I went away for a month. I had several people collecting the eggs. I have one feeder and waterer in the coop and one under the covered part of the run. I put two extra large (wide) shallow glass planters out in the area of my run that is not covered as we usually get rain every day in the summer and the rain would go into, so hopefully they would have plenty of water. Everything worked out. We had a hurricane and a tornado went though our property while we were gone. A tree fell into the run and knocked down part of the fence. When some friends came to check the chickens they were still all in the run.