Do you ever get tired of filling food dishes?

[mamawolf544]

I love my critters, but sometimes filling all those food and water dishes gets so tiring.
So lets play how many pens do you have?

I have 12 quail pens
1 pheasant
4 brooders
10 bantem/lf pens
3 breeding pens
2 yards that have feed and water for the free range stuff
Jenny the pig
rabbits
5 outside dogs
15 outside cats
boer goats
4 inside dogs
2 inside cats
finches
and of course the people

I think I am tired. And you have to gather eggs about 5 times a day and most of my hens want to play egg hunt.

 

[mjdtexan]

Wow, you are busy, huh? I have 4 dogs and 17 hens and 1 cat. I am expecting 20 more pullets in the next day or so.

 

[saddina]

I divy it out. We have a chore chart that includes all the animals. Example today Erik got cats and rabbits, Evan got chickens and quail etc.... Each child is responsiable for feeding and watering the animal on thier days, and mom just does a quick check after breakfast to be sure they didn't miss anything. Each feed can has the label from the bag (the label has a drawing of the animal as well as the kind of feed on it) taped to the can, so even the 5 year old can match the bunny picture with the bunny can.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Quote:
Very organized-Good For You!! I did something like that when we had the neighbor care for our animals so we could take a trip, worked well!
DH and I take turns, he handles the morning chores and I do the evening chores. Takes me about 1/2 hour each evening to get everyone fed and then I turn to the people side of it! We feed the horses twice a day but every one else gets fed once a day (chickens have 24/7 food). I also only collect eggs once a day unless it's the weekend and we're home then I'll go out more to collect!

 

[DawnSuiter]

Ok...

Here's where/what we have to go/do each day

4 post coop (4 scoops of food) - 3 gallons water
Small coop (1 scoop) - 1/2 gallon
Hen House (divided in 2) 1 scoop right side, 2 scoops left side - 2 gallons total water
Pen 1 - 2 scoops - 1 gallon
Pen 2 - 1 scoop - 1 gallon
Pen 3 - 1 scoop - 1 gallon
Isolette - 1/2 scoop - 1/2 gallon
Single Coop - 1/2 scoop - 1/2 gallon
Chain Link Run/Coop - 2 scoops - 1 gallon
Grow out pen - 3 to 4 scoops - 5 gallons
Banty coop - 1 scoop - 1/2 gallon
#1 Banty rooster cage - 1/4 scoop - cup of water
#2 Banty rooster cage - 1/4 scoop - cup of water

2 Brooders - twice per day both food & water

5 dog bowls twice per day
Outside water bowl - 1 gallon per day
Inside water fountain 1-2 gallons per day
3 cat food bowls - adult cats once per day - small kitty several small handfuls throughout the day (otherwise one of the dogs eat it all)

Gather eggs once or twice per day

Then there are us people

I cook usually once per day in the evening

 

[canada-goose]

I don't have as many food dishes to fill as you do! That's a good reason to not buy every animal you fall in love with!

 

[Soccer Mom]

Lets see, we have: Horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats, geese, guineas, & chickens. Oh, and a fish. There are a lot of pens to hit and a lot of waterers to check.

I agree that divying up chores is the only way to go. My 8yo DS helps with small animals. 11 yo DS does a lot more, but then quite a few of the animals are his, including the goats. We all rotate through jobs so that no one person bears all the responsibility every night--although I admit that somehow I mostly end up doing the poo duty.

ETA: I forgot the cows, but that's because my Dad handles them almost all the time. I only mess with them if he's out of town or something.