Feeding and watering systems for 10 days?!

[Bettacreek]

I have nobody to feed/water my chicks while I'm away on the cruise. The BF's brother will be able to check them every day to make sure that nothing goes wrong, but he won't feed or water anybody. So, I need to devise a plan to feed/water 20 button quail chicks (hatched 1/31) and up to 9 jumbo coturnix chicks (due tomorrow) for 10 days. I may be able to get him to refill the water/food once during the trip, but I'd rather play it safe than sorry, and have enough available to last the entire trip. So, anyone have any ingenius plans or ideas for me? I was looking at pop bottle waterers, but I worry if they get bumped by the dog or one of the brother's kids, then they'll stop dispensing properly. I also have two rabbits, if anyone has any ideas for them as well, lol.

 

[citalk2much]

Quote:
ummm send me your tickets I will go and you can stay home to take care of the animals yap that has to be the best plan

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol! Sounds like an excellent plan.

No chance that I'd give up the tickets. Nothing like going on a cruise and getting to swim in the ocean in the middle of Feb, lol. I can't flippin wait! Just have to get things around here first, lol. BF's getting the suitcases today, so we're going to pack up the stuff that isn't every-day (or that we have extras of) ahead of time. We get to stay in Miami for a day before we leave on the cruise. I hope to get out and see a lot of wildlife. I promise to take a camera, and promise to upload pictures eventually (we all know that I take forever and a half to upload anything, lol).

 

[Chieftain]

A long term solution for water might be a rainwater collection and storage system...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=290206

 

[Akane]

Stick multiple (lots) of water bottles and bin feeders on everyone's cage including the rabbits. One of those giant rabbit bottles lasts several days in most cases. 4 of them should last more than a week even if one malfunctions or gets knocked down. I used one for indoor chickens and even with fully grown bantams it would last a couple days. It would just cost lots of water bottles and some extra feeders.

 

[farrier!]

Give them to someone who can take care of them.
There is no way to safely self water and feed young chicks for that period of time and expect them to survive.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

I would contact your local 4H chapter and find a couple kids who would do it for a few bucks or the promise of some fertile eggs/chicks at a later date.

That's actually how I got my start with quail, I looked after someone's for a couple days and she gifted me with some eggs.

 

[Byrdj]

farrier! :

Give them to someone who can take care of them.
There is no way to safely self water and feed young chicks for that period of time and expect them to survive.

A agree. That way you won't be worried during your cruise that they are doing OK.​

 

[Bettacreek]

I had thought about "relocating" them during the cruise. I don't know of anyone who would do it for me, and I refuse to have a random person take care of them. The petstore in State College (an hour from here) will "petsit", but they really don't know their butt from a hole in the ground, and may not even accept "livestock". I'd love to hire a kiddo from around here, but, well, there aren't any kiddos from around here that would be allowed in the house (any of the neighbor kids are riff-raff who break into places). We don't really have any of this type of resource around here... I live in BFE, and it's not even a farming BFE.

 

[chickenannie]

I would worry too much about it -- why don't you train the BF's brother about feeding so he is more comfortable with doing that part of the job? He'll see how easy it is. What I did was have my critter sitter follow me around the first time. Then second time she did everything while I followed her. Then I left a note with instructions so she could check things off the list when I wasn't there. Goes very smoothly now.