Going on vacation

[Southern Dad]

Rather than start a new thread, I jumped in on this one because it really is the same issue. In October and February each year we take a week vacation to Walt Disney World. When we embarked on chicken keeping, we really didn't consider this. I've got a total of 8 hens and no roosters. We get approximately 2 - 4 eggs per day. Water isn't an issue because I've got two five gallon buckets with chicken nipples on the bottoms. Food, not a problem. I'm building two feeders so I can put plenty. Notice the redundancy? I hate when something fails. The chickens have a coop and run that is secure. It has machine cloth all around.

My biggest concern, I believe would be the eggs. There are three nesting boxes. They use all three. The nests have lots of bedding (pine shavings). Think I have a danger of causing some egg eaters? I have someone who could come once, maybe twice while we are gone to collect eggs but my neighbors aren't animal people, nor could I count on them.

 

[aart]

Rather than start a new thread, I jumped in on this one because it really is the same issue. In October and February each year we take a week vacation to Walt Disney World. When we embarked on chicken keeping, we really didn't consider this. I've got a total of 8 hens and no roosters. We get approximately 2 - 4 eggs per day. Water isn't an issue because I've got two five gallon buckets with chicken nipples on the bottoms. Food, not a problem. I'm building two feeders so I can put plenty. Notice the redundancy? I hate when something fails. The chickens have a coop and run that is secure. It has machine cloth all around.

My biggest concern, I believe would be the eggs. There are three nesting boxes. They use all three. The nests have lots of bedding (pine shavings). Think I have a danger of causing some egg eaters? I have someone who could come once, maybe twice while we are gone to collect eggs but my neighbors aren't animal people, nor could I count on them.

Sounds pretty good...... what about manure management?
Always a risk, IMO, not to look in on them at least once a day and the person looking have some chicken experience so as to recognize and know what to do if something is amiss.

Post back here to let us know how it turned out.

P.S. what is machine cloth?

 

[Southern Dad]

Sounds pretty good...... what about manure management?
Always a risk, IMO, not to look in on them at least once a day and the person looking have some chicken experience so as to recognize and know what to do if something is amiss.

Post back here to let us know how it turned out.

P.S. what is machine cloth?

The run part of the coop is river sand, a little over 6" deep. The chickens actually seem to bury their own. While I do rake it sometimes, it seems to stay very clean. I did a sift this week, the sand really seems to dry out those droppings. Although I have two roost bars in the coop itself, four of the chickens roost on the top of the coop between the coop and run with the business end into the run. The other three like to roost up in the top of the run area. The silkie is in isolation in the greenhouse which gives her a 120 square feet to herself.

I pressure wash out the chicken coop once a week, so I could do that the day before I leave. I do have a camera in between the coop and run so that I can observe. So far, everyone seems to think we're nuts to even have chickens.

Sorry, hardware cloth. Far tougher than chicken wire.

 

[sm2teach]

Southern Dad, I would like to know how it turns out for you too. I don't know about encouraging egg eating. I guess if one accidentally got broken it could happen. I would also worry about encouraging broodiness depending on the breed of your hens.

Our chickens survived just fine without us for the week. We had one person let them out in the mornings and another put them up in the evening. The weather did turn much cooler that week. The person who put them up for us did have a funny story to tell. She had plans one evening to go to dinner so she decided she would just go an hour early to put the chickens up. Of course they didn't want anything to do with going to bed early. So for a full hour she tried to convince them to go into the coop. She went in the coop herself and made chicken noises. She found a chicken video online and played it. In the end they went in on their own at their regular bed time. I did take her out to dinner for all her trouble.