Dixie Chicks

[perchie.girl]

you could pack them quite comfortably in a four horse stock trailer... Good all purpose tool too. i want one in the worst way.

they have partitions good for sheep... you want enough room for them to lay down so I am guessing a one horse stall... Then the ducks could go in the other one horse stall Easy to make horizontal partition for them... 50 per level...

Now you have a two horse partition for all the other crates. Feed and water the sheep from the front. You could also built a vertical partition to set bales of hay in. Dog can get out to go do his business but I would NOT allow the cat any free roaming or getting out... build him a cage that has his cat box and a cozy place to sleep. He would probably feel better in a darker place...safer.


Remember you are going to also have to pack enough food and water for ALL of them for the two or three day trip... Id pack an extra days worth just in case. All of them can go without food... for a day... but I wouldnt stretch the water out.

Cold weather is to your advantage... they will keep each other warm just by their own BTU out put. HOt weather I wouldnt recommend a move like this unless you had climate controlled trailer...

Bedding is important too. its going to get a little ripe in there....

So leave yourself an asile... STock trailers have ONE big door in the back that has a human door in side of it. Nice for critter containment. Also if you think its going to get too cold then you can line the trailer with plywood.

Horizontal partitions are easy to make couple of sheets of ply wood and two by fours wedged as support. the plywood can go uncut just lay it flat and over lap and get some screws in it to hold it in place.... Now you have some building materials when you get there. Another thing you can do for wood support is stack bales of hay and lay plywood on top.

deb

 

[BriardChickens]

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I am planning on using my truck bed for just feed and water maybe some bedding so we don't have to purchase that the day after we arrive. The nice thing about the new location is that it already is set up for temporary use.
It has one small chicken house (maybe 3 chickens, but no run)
It has one carpetet shed that was used to foster cats, it's large enough to house my chickens and turkeys and has a tiny run attached to it. Shed is good, just needs carpet removed and roosts.

It has a small fenced in garden, sheep will go into there for a few days until the electric fence is set up. There is enough wild growth in there it should keep them busy.

Then there is a large, large fenced in "back yard" and ducks would find shelter under the deck for a night. There is also a large shed not too far but I never checked it out, it's big and may work as a night time shelter. The "backyard" is the size of a pasture.

The entire area sees frost a few times a year and plenty of rain during the winter, everything will be green and growing. I may have to restrict the sheep on green grass for a bit.

I am still trying to convince DH to let me buy a stock trailer. His idea involves a flat deck trailer and he builds up walls and ceiling out of plywood. One of the larger oil companies is going to be trading in a bunch of trailers. DH has agreed to see if maybe they also trade in a nice fully enclosed trailer. I am stalking kijiji.

And that certain pregnant someone will still be a number of hours away from me..

Keep throwing ideas at me please!!

123 days left.

 

[BriardChickens]

Quote: The seller is getting heart surgery, we wanted immediate possession and she was pushing 6 months. She has no one to help her move and has to move some heavy industrial kitchen equipment, also no money to hire someone as far as we have been told.
Here you have to have mortgage insurance (CMHC) if your down payment is under 25%. So when you apply for a mortgage and the banks say yes then the bank sends the paper work to CMHC for approval. If CMHC says no, it's a no go. In recent years, CMHC has become really hard to please, they don't like second homes, they don't like rentals, they don't like island properties, they don't like anything else but your cookie cutter home, nothing out of the ordinary...
So to answer your question: in our sales contract we said we wanted possession by December (to secure our mortgage rates) but would rent her the property for 2 months. (we didn't know the CMHC thing yet). Our mortgage broker advised us to remove that clause and just drop the sales price for what we would have charged in rent.

And yes, we agreed to pay less money then our original offer due to our inconvenience of not being able to move in right away.

Sorry, that's the long answer ROFL

 

[hennible]

It will be an adventure
I'm with alaskan, animals get shipped. It will be stressful but I think it will be fine. I've only ever transported ducks 3 hours, fish and cats, dog and ferrets around 12 hours.
Fun times with CMHC... Lol
And Felix, I doubt Briard will be anywhere close to me at any point in her trip, unless she gets lost lol
Maybe with in a 3 hours drive at the closest point in the trip... And I won't be that pregnant in March
Lol

 

[vehve]

Sam, I figured most people wait 12 weeks to tell, plus over four months to that you'd be plenty preggers. And are you saying BC is a vast area or something? =P

Everyone know that basic scene in boxing movies where the trainer is cleaning up the cuts on his protegée? Well I got to do that today... Looks like it's time to chop the younger cockerels head off, poor Eemeli took quite a beating.



He's been in a bit of a molt so his comb color is thoroughly that palest color you can see, all the healthy looking parts are actually blood. I got the bleeding to die down pretty nicely with ice, and I cleaned him a bit with Betadine and Vetericyn, but whenever I tried to scrub his wounds a bit better they kept opening up again, so I propped him back in the coop (with the rest of the flock locked outside. Also some nicks to the other side of his face, and a bit in his neck that doesn't look that bad. Once Karin comes home in the evening I think the wounds should stay closed and we can clean him up properly. But I think the young cockerel is loosing his head in the evening too, he's about half a year old now and has been the mellowest little trooper so far, but I won't stand for this kind of behavior. Actually, the younger one looks better than Eemeli, but shares a bit too much DNA with the rest of the flock, so I think we'll just patch up this guy and hope that he pulls through. He seemed pretty unhappy when I kept him in the shower for 2 hours to monitor the bleeding and try to clean it up, but once I put him in the coop he started walking about and even crowing a bit, so I think he'll be fine. The younger one mainly seemed to have Eemelis blood on him, ad he's behavior was so preppy that I didn't bother taking him in, just gave him a once over out in the run.

I'll report back after we've given Eemeli some proper wound care, if and when the cuts stay closed. Luckily it's a bit chillier outside, that should aid in keeping the wounds from opening up again.

 

[hennible]

Lol Felix
Good luck with the rooster.

 

[BriardChickens]

We do that same drive 3 or 4 times a year with our dog. We've been silly and done it in a day, but usually drive it in 1 1/2-2 given good road conditions and longer days in the summer.

Vehve, looks probably worse then it is... I agree, no reason to keep a fighter around.

Hennible: egg trades would be a lot easier

 

[vehve]

Yeah, the cuts aren't that bad, but the comb has so much blood flow since it's designed to adjust the chickens body temperature, so it bleeds like crazy. Hopefully it should heal pretty quickly too though. Poor little boy. The other rooster is actually a better rooster in every way, he's more protective of the flock, more alert, less clumsy, and also very well behaved around humans (like his daddy whom he beat up). But Eemeli is our favorite.

 

[hennible]

Oh yeah, egg trades would be much simpler!

 

[vehve]

Well, the trouble maker is no more. Didn't have the energy to pluck him so we just took the breasts and legs, they weighed in at 850g (just shy of 2 lbs). Not bad.

And Eemeli got to make another trip to the bathroom, this time we cleaned him up a bit, and applied a whole lot of super glue to all the various little nicks that just didn't want to stop bleeding. Then Karin cleaned his nostrils, and when I took him out out to the coop, he immediately started eating. And after we had processed the younger roo, and I opened the coop door, he came out to eat with his ladies, and even crowed a bit. Now he's sleeping out in the run, on the perches. I think he'll be just fine.