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tickens33

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Apr 9, 2024
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Hello! My partner and I are in our 20s and raising chickens for the first time. Currently we are brooding them in a box in our city apartment and we will be moving them to a hobby farm we recently inherited, about a 35 minute drive away. I'm looking forward to learning from the people on this forum! If you've ever raised livestock away from the property you live on, I'd especially love to hear your experiences. Thanks!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow

I had a friend that did something similar, she lived in the city and couldn't keep chickens. She found someone that let her rent out a shed on the property out in the country and she kept her flock there. She drove out there every day, rain, snow, sunny days, twice a day to let them out and get them to bed each night. It worked for her! 😊
 
TwoCrows said:
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow

I had a friend that did something similar, she lived in the city and couldn't keep chickens. She found someone that let her rent out a shed on the property out in the country and she kept her flock there. She drove out there every day, rain, snow, sunny days, twice a day to let them out and get them to bed each night. It worked for her! 😊
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the welcome and for sharing that info!

We will probably not be able to drive out there every single day, but we have a family member who lives within 15 minutes who can go on the days we aren't there, just to check up and let us know if there's anything that might need more urgent tending from us (and collect eggs when it's time). We both have flexible work schedules so will be camping on the property for 4+ days pretty much every weekend. So at most the chickens might go 36 hours unattended and will have multiple continuous days with our presence each week.

Other than the in-progress coop, there's no structures out there right now, but we're hoping to build a residence there within the next 1-2 years. In the meantime we plan that the birds will have a feed container large enough to last them at least a month, and multiple redundant water sources in case one gets compromised when we aren't present.

As far as letting them out and back in, our plan is to strongly predator-proof the run, which we are in the process of building right now (for example- a hardware cloth skirt extending multiple feet down and outward along with other measures) and allowing them 24/7 access to the run. We looked into the automatic doors vs. free run access and it seems that the latter works best for our situation right now.

If you have any thoughts on the above, please do let me know. In all honesty, my partner is the builder out of the two of us, so largely responsible for the coop designs, and his plan is pretty set and unlikely to be changed. But if you or anyone has more perspective about aspects of this that might not work as we planned, I'd still love to hear it.

Thanks again!
 
tickens33 said:
Thanks so much for the welcome and for sharing that info!

We will probably not be able to drive out there every single day, but we have a family member who lives within 15 minutes who can go on the days we aren't there, just to check up and let us know if there's anything that might need more urgent tending from us (and collect eggs when it's time). We both have flexible work schedules so will be camping on the property for 4+ days pretty much every weekend. So at most the chickens might go 36 hours unattended and will have multiple continuous days with our presence each week.

Other than the in-progress coop, there's no structures out there right now, but we're hoping to build a residence there within the next 1-2 years. In the meantime we plan that the birds will have a feed container large enough to last them at least a month, and multiple redundant water sources in case one gets compromised when we aren't present.

As far as letting them out and back in, our plan is to strongly predator-proof the run, which we are in the process of building right now (for example- a hardware cloth skirt extending multiple feet down and outward along with other measures) and allowing them 24/7 access to the run. We looked into the automatic doors vs. free run access and it seems that the latter works best for our situation right now.

If you have any thoughts on the above, please do let me know. In all honesty, my partner is the builder out of the two of us, so largely responsible for the coop designs, and his plan is pretty set and unlikely to be changed. But if you or anyone has more perspective about aspects of this that might not work as we planned, I'd still love to hear it.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
I think you will figure things out as you go as to what works and what doesn't. I would definitely make sure to put a roof on your run to protect the birds from the elements. Other than that, enjoy this new journey! If you have any questions along the way, be sure to ask.
 
TwoCrows said:
I think you will figure things out as you go as to what works and what doesn't. I would definitely make sure to put a roof on your run to protect the birds from the elements. Other than that, enjoy this new journey! If you have any questions along the way, be sure to ask.
Click to expand...
Yes, a roof with complete coverage for the run is an important part of our plan! Glad you mentioned that!! Thanks again so much for your help
 

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