Going camping for the weekend, what to do with chickens?

[karlamaria]

I decided a several months ago I was going to make it easier on my family and my self and get an electric door opener. also had the pen enlarged and the coop. I was not going to miss camping or going out of town because they were left alone. I got big feeders, big waterers and small waterers and even nipple buckets and off I go. I do have a neighbor to retrieve the eggs, but the box is on the out side of the coop so he just has to flip the lid open, I provide the cartons and he gets the eggs he retrieves. life is to short not to enjoy it and by being locked down with chickens is no life. I love my girls, spoil them and free range them every day, but when I want to go, back into the pen and electric door. amen!
In the summer I plan to not use the electric door while Im gone ( in case of power outages. they can go in and out on there own durring the summer, my pen is totally animal proof. winter they can have it open and close.

 

[dainerra]

agreed. there is no routine necessary for a pet sitter to put the birds away at night. The birds will put themselves to bed when it gets dark. All you need is someone to come by, possibly do a head count, and close the door.

As others have said, you don't want to over-complicate things. 1 it leads to people not wanting to help a second time (esp since you will probably get mad when it isn't done "the way I do it") 2 it leads to mistakes If the sitter is focused on making sure that he mixes the right amount of water in with the food or making sure that he doesn't get too much poop on him from your pet roo, he might forget to lock the door securely.

Just take a deep deep breath. Simplify your list down to the bare essentials - feed, water, security.

 

[77horses]

haha this thread is so old....I saw the email today that notified me that someone had replied to this thread, and I was like "what? I didn't create this thread..?", then I saw that it was created 2 years ago. -_- haha oh well, hope it helps anyone who was wondering the same thing I was (at the time that I actually created this thread anyways

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What's weird is that I happen to be going camping again this weekend...so it's an odd coincidence that this particular thread happened to pop up at this time, haha.