Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

I have a question concerning the transportation of waterfowl long distances. I live in Northwest Kansas and will be making a trip for work to the Kansas City area. On my way back (roughly 8 hours), I'm gonna be buying 4 khaki campbell ducks (from one place) and 2 white chinese geese (from another place). I have an extra large wire dog cage that I put in the back of the SUV that I've used to transport my flock in before (2 pekins, 1 rouen, 2 swedish, 1 cross, 1 duck whose breed is unknown, 1 white chinese goose). However, I'll be getting the ducks and the geese from two separate places. I do have a divider I could use, but I was planning on stopping every now and then to offer them water. With the divider, I won't be able to reach the back half of the cage without the risk of letting the birds in the front half loose. I do have a medium sized dog carrier I could put some of the birds in as well.

Questions:

1. How often do I need to offer them water?
2. Which arrangement is better?:

a. All the birds in the large cage with no divider (Is this bad with the birds coming from two separate flocks/owners?)
b. All the birds in the large cage with a divider (I can't get to the birds in the back half without the risk of the ones in the front half getting loose.
c. The 4 khaki campbell ducks in the large cage, the geese in the pet carrier. (Would the carrier be too tight for the two geese for such a long trip, roughly about 8 hours?) For size reference, I put my two pekin ducks in there, and they could move around, but not much.
d. The 2 geese in the large cage and the 4 ducks in the carrier (Again, I don't think the carrier is large enough for all 4 ducks, especially for such a long trip)
e. 2 ducks and the 2 geese in the large cage, the 2 remaining ducks in the carrier. (Is it bad to split the ducks up? Again, I'd be dealing with not being able to offer the birds in the back half of the cage any water without the risk of the ones in the front getting loose)

Do any of you have any tips/suggestions for travelling long distances with birds? The geese I'll be getting are juveniles (3-6 months of age). The ducks are about 4 months old.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chicken danz]

Heather, I would have picked that up too! It's gorgeous!

 

[HEChicken]

Lizzy, I have absolutely NO experience with traveling long-distance with waterfowl. The longest trip I've taken was 45 minutes with chickens when we moved to our new place. So - hopefully someone else can better answer your questions.

I assume for waterfowl one would generally take the same quarantine precautions as are taken for chickens? In that case, I don't think it would make a difference if they are in the same dog crate with or without a divider, as they can as easily spread disease through the wire divider as if they are mingling freely.

Will you be traveling by day or night? At night most birds don't drink water anyway, so I would think if you traveled by night, you might be able to get away with not stopping to offer water. It will be cooler then too, which would also help in not needing water as badly.

Are you able to fit more than one crate in the back of the SUV? If so, you might see if you can borrow another from someone else. I put a tarp over my large dog crate, leaving only the front open. (I did this years ago when I was actually using it for dogs. I had it out on my back deck and the tarp allowed me to have a dog in there without it getting soaked by rain.) I have since used it for birds and it was nice security to put chicks in it in the middle of the backyard and know a rain shower wasn't going to bother them. I would guess that it would also serve as a reasonable barrier between two new groups of birds to lower the risk of them spreading disease, so perhaps you could have multiple dog crates, and cover them with tarps?

 

[HEChicken]

Michelleml that is such a burden. My heart goes out to you. Jobs are so tight right now. Unfortunately unskilled labor doesn't pay much... not enough to pay for child care. Back when my daughter was going to nursing school, she had a new born baby, and her husband wasn't making much, she started cleaning houses. She put in an add, got a couple homes,and word of mouth spread. She finally had enough clients she had to hire someone else and eventually she didn't clean at all she just managed the business. When she got her RN they moved and she sold the business to one of her employees. It does pay good money and it doesn't take that much time. It might be something to consider. Initially she ran another add and found another girl who was home with kids to watch her kid for a trade of child care when she was cleaning. They just traded hours so the other mother could get out and go shopping or whatever she needed to do. Once her business grew she sat at home and kept track of finances and never had to hire a sitter.
Just an idea to keep in mind.

Those are both great ideas! (House-cleaning business and trading child care.) I never had a formal arrangement for trading child-care when my kids were young - nothing on a regular basis - but I belonged to a playgroup (I dunno if they do that here? In Australia, groups of young mums with kids a similar age will find a hall to meet in and once a week, get together. The kids play (we met in a preschool so the kids had access to easels to paint, play dough, an outdoor playground etc) and the mums have a cuppa and a snack and get to share their joys and frustrations over child-rearing). Anyway, I made so many friends with kids the same age as mine at playgroup that any time I needed to run an errand and couldn't take the kids, it was easy to find someone to drop them off with for a couple of hours. Likewise, I would take their kids any time I could. It was really a win-win as my kids loved getting to play with their friends and there are some things that are just easier to do without having to get kids in and out of car seats, and so on.

Michelle, do you live on base? If so, there may be some other army wives that are in the same boat you are and perhaps you can set up something together like Danz was describing above?

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Went and saw Fern this morning. She looks so sad.. but she sat up! She ate a little (about a cup) last night and is drinking well. The vet will sedate her later today and check out the leg and give me options. He is saying I can bring her home about Wednesday morning. She is probably best where she is at actually.. even though I miss her.

 

[HEChicken]

Thanks for the update on Fern. I bet Wednesday sounds like a long time away.....

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy, I have absolutely NO experience with traveling long-distance with waterfowl. The longest trip I've taken was 45 minutes with chickens when we moved to our new place. So - hopefully someone else can better answer your questions.

I assume for waterfowl one would generally take the same quarantine precautions as are taken for chickens? In that case, I don't think it would make a difference if they are in the same dog crate with or without a divider, as they can as easily spread disease through the wire divider as if they are mingling freely.

Will you be traveling by day or night? At night most birds don't drink water anyway, so I would think if you traveled by night, you might be able to get away with not stopping to offer water. It will be cooler then too, which would also help in not needing water as badly.

Are you able to fit more than one crate in the back of the SUV? If so, you might see if you can borrow another from someone else. I put a tarp over my large dog crate, leaving only the front open. (I did this years ago when I was actually using it for dogs. I had it out on my back deck and the tarp allowed me to have a dog in there without it getting soaked by rain.) I have since used it for birds and it was nice security to put chicks in it in the middle of the backyard and know a rain shower wasn't going to bother them. I would guess that it would also serve as a reasonable barrier between two new groups of birds to lower the risk of them spreading disease, so perhaps you could have multiple dog crates, and cover them with tarps?

I will be travelling by day. The vehicle does have air conditioning that works well, so I can try to keep it cooler in the vehicle for them. I was more worried about the geese bothering/hurting the ducks than transferring sicknesses between them. Ducks and geese are pretty hardy and are pretty resistant to sicknesses if they're healthy. I'll be checking the new birds over for any signs of sicknesses before I buy them. If I see any, I won't be buying them.

No, I can't fit more than one dog cage in the SUV. The one I have is one we use for my husband's 100 pound chocolate lab. It is like this one from Orscheln's, but I think ours is larger as it fits a dog larger than 85 pounds. We have an early 2000's model Honda CR-V and the dog cage takes up most of the room in the back with the back seats laid down. There is a little room left on the one side (maybe 6"), but not nearly enough to put another cage of any kind. If I do use the dog carrier (similar to this one that I use for my pomeranian), I would have to put it in the front passenger seat. I think the birds would be most comfortable in the cage but am concerned about giving them water if I use the divider and them being mean to each other if I don't use the divider. Thoughts?

Went and saw Fern this morning. She looks so sad.. but she sat up! She ate a little (about a cup) last night and is drinking well. The vet will sedate her later today and check out the leg and give me options. He is saying I can bring her home about Wednesday morning. She is probably best where she is at actually.. even though I miss her.

So glad to hear a good report!

 

[chicken danz]

All the birds are young. I don't think the geese would injure the ducks. I've kept geese and ducks together and the ducks were actually the more aggressive. An adult gander might be a different story. If it were me I would put them all together without separating, but keep them separate from the birds you have now once you get them home for a few weeks. Waterfowl don't seem to suffer from as many diseases as chickens in my experience. If they look sickly I would avoid them. Otherwise I think you'd be fine. I would definitely put a tarp or plastic down under the crate cause you know they will splash water! I've transported a lot of birds but never over about 3 hours at a time. But have had them caged up to 2 days for auctions and stuff. I bought some little hanging bird feeder bowls that can fit on about any cage. I put a couple of those in a dog kennel and bring some bottled water. Normally refilled water bottles or a milk jug. If you have a funnel it makes it even easier. Just give them a little water every 2-3 hours and let them drink it. You don't want so much they will play in it, just enough to get a drink. Another cheaper method of doing that is to take some used tin cans. Wider mouthed the better. Wire them to the kennel and use those for water. I would probably withhold food until they were home simply because it will be hard for them to get their nostrils cleaned out.
Good news on Fern! Congrats. Maybe in the interim, if you have electricity out to the chicken house you could set up a light outside the pen. It won't work long term but it might be enough to deter that coon from coming back for more birds. Also maybe plug in a radio or something to make noise. You want that coon to think it isn't safe to show up.
Its egg delivery day. I hate that trip to town and all the stops. But I guess it's a few dollars.

 

[sharol]

What good news. She won't feel abandoned if you visit her. My thoughts are with you.

Went and saw Fern this morning. She looks so sad.. but she sat up! She ate a little (about a cup) last night and is drinking well. The vet will sedate her later today and check out the leg and give me options. He is saying I can bring her home about Wednesday morning. She is probably best where she is at actually.. even though I miss her.

 

[lizzyGSR]

All the birds are young. I don't think the geese would injure the ducks. I've kept geese and ducks together and the ducks were actually the more aggressive. An adult gander might be a different story. If it were me I would put them all together without separating, but keep them separate from the birds you have now once you get them home for a few weeks. Waterfowl don't seem to suffer from as many diseases as chickens in my experience. If they look sickly I would avoid them. Otherwise I think you'd be fine. I would definitely put a tarp or plastic down under the crate cause you know they will splash water! I've transported a lot of birds but never over about 3 hours at a time. But have had them caged up to 2 days for auctions and stuff. I bought some little hanging bird feeder bowls that can fit on about any cage. I put a couple of those in a dog kennel and bring some bottled water. Normally refilled water bottles or a milk jug. If you have a funnel it makes it even easier. Just give them a little water every 2-3 hours and let them drink it. You don't want so much they will play in it, just enough to get a drink. Another cheaper method of doing that is to take some used tin cans. Wider mouthed the better. Wire them to the kennel and use those for water. I would probably withhold food until they were home simply because it will be hard for them to get their nostrils cleaned out.

Thank you so much for the response! That helps tremendously! I'm hoping to be able to get all young females of both the ducks and the geese. That should help with any possible aggression as well. I've got some poultry food bags (the water resistant kind) that I put underneath the cage, and I kept the plastic thing in the bottom of the cage. Then, I put straw in there with them so they wouldn't slide around quite as bad.

As for separating the new ones from the ones I have now... I only have one duck house. I do have a wood/wire panel that I can use to divide the house into two halves, but there is no good way to keep them separated enough to prevent the transfer of sicknesses. That is a risk I'm just gonna have to take. I will be dividing their run in half as well so that I can lock the newbies up until they get used to this as "home" but still let my existing flock free range (the existing flock will get the half with the gate, the new flock will get the half with the pool and the duck house).

Again, thank you all so much for your input and suggestions! They have been very helpful!