Going Away for 4-5 days!

[cheeptrick]

We are going away for a camping trip and the chickies will be left in their coop and run for 4-5 days. What at the feed store can I purchase that will last and satisfy their prisonment from free ranging? Alfalfa? Or is there something I could chop down in my yard and stick in the run...wild raspberry bushes?

 

[lurky]

Cant you ask a neighbor or friend or relative to throw in some fruit or something?
Some apples? I just found mine LOVE honey nut cheerios. Can you buy a box and ask someone to throw a bunch in once a day?

 

[RioLindoAz]

if you are free rangeing them and you will be gone for that long you should probobly buy a bag of food and put it in the coop just in case the chickens decide there gunna wander of.

I'm going away tomarow too for about three days. I'm gunna go to Disney Land!!! I'm just gunna lock my "chickens" in thier Coop/Run and sence the sprinklers go on I'm gunna put the food on a stool and for the baby chicks in thier run/coop I'm and put a open bag laying on the floor with food in it.

 

[cheeptrick]

Hi Lurky...I do have the neighbor boy coming over the first two days; but he's going away for the weekend leaving Friday. I just bought a huge bag of BOSS from Wal-Mart and I'm going to put it in an old feeder I had hanging around. I was just worried they might fight after the 2nd day or so. We are leaving Wednesday afternoon and coming home Sunday morning...so it isn't too long. Do feed stores sell Alfalfa in huge bales like hay comes?

 

[cheeptrick]

Chickenboy...leaving the bag on the floor is a great idea! I might do that with my BOSS. I added a few new roosts in the run...so they have a total of 6! My husband and I made one from fallen birch tree branch...OH you are in AZ...you don't know what those are...you know the tall green leafy things!!

 

[silkiechicken]

I would try and find a way to make them work for it. Like maybe fill a bucket with holes in the bottom that the seeds can go though when the bucket is tapped. Else they may eat up all the goodies and not their normal feed. Leaving food on the ground would be fine if you don't have to worry about rodents like we have here.

 

[SandraChick]

Your biggest concern should be WATER. Chickens can do just fine for several days without food should something happen--but if you're water spills and there 's no water they'll be in trouble.

Make sure your waterer is secure and then put out several waterers as a failsafe.

Sandra

PS. I'm so thankful my neighbors take care of my animals (and water the garden) when I go away.... I actually have a backup from neighbors down the street!!!!

good neighbors!

 

[cheeptrick]

Ok...I bought a dog feeder that only dispenses a little at a time. I put the BOSS in that and I've got a long feed trough that I put extra feed in and I've also got a bag of kitten food left over from my NOW healed vitamin E and calcium deficient hen which I will split open and leave on the coop floor. Putting out an extra water bin in the run is a great idea...I'll do that today!
My dh and I added new dirt to the run today...tough work...and just did some extra securing around the run and coop to make sure no critters get to our girls!
Thank you all...

 

[WoodlandWoman]

For activity, a flake of hay would give them something to mess with and scratch around in, as well as eating the leaves.

 

[frankenchick]

Someone posted a really good idea about hanging small heads of cabbage in the runs for the chickens to peck at . . . chicken pinatas, I guess.

At first my older girls were afraid of them; once they caught on, they pecked 'em to pieces. I'm sure the younger roos were relieved!

When I go away for the day, I put big chunks of ice in the waterer. That way, they can't spill all the water 5 mins after I leave!