Help! Going on vacation, worried about the girls

[glloyd203]

Hi all! It's my first post here on BYC though I've been reading forums on here for ages. I finally have a little flock of my own, and for the first time I am going away for just two days and I'm super worried about them... I've read a couple of threads on this topic that helped me decide that it will be okay to leave them locked in the coop, but I have a couple more questions/concerns.. So I plan to leave them locked in all day Saturday, and then have my neighbor come by Sunday morning to let them out into their run, and then I will be home by dark Sunday night to put them to bed again. I don't quite trust anyone yet to lock them in at night since they are still young and aren't 100% trained to go in easily (there's always at least one stubborn straggler!) I think my biggest concern is how they will fare being locked inside from Friday night til Sunday morning with our high-80's Georgia daytime temps. Also, I have one coop for the ducks and one for the chickens, and they can see out their windows across to one another, and I've noticed in the morning when I go to let them out they are already awake staring longingly at each other between the two houses and squawking and totally freaking out! I guess my concern is that they'll get really worked up about being separated (the chickens and the ducks that is) and try to peck their way out of their glass window. I'm also worried about ventilation - each coop has at least one window and the coops are made with spaces between the slats for some ventilation, I do think I will add a couple more windows this week just to be safe... but I would love some feedback/advice from people who have left chickens and ducks locked in their coops while on vaca! I get so anxious about my animals and would love to have some peace of mind

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC.
Could you possibly post a few pictures of your coops...to give us a better idea of your set up.

You could do a practice run..
Keep them locked up for the same amount of time before you actually leave.

 

[glloyd203]

Sure thing! Here are some pics I took of the coops... The first two are the duck house and the third with the one window at the end is on the chicken coop.

 

[Mrs. K]

Not sure what your run looks like, if it is secure, I leave my pop up door open and let them decide when to go in and out. I would worry about ventilation if they were trapped inside in high heat. The doing a test run is good advice. But when I leave mine, they are in a coop/run set up, and choose when to go out, or go in.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

You could do a practice run..
Keep them locked up for the same amount of time before you actually leave.

Excellent idea!

Might want to put a thermometer in the coop so you know how hot it gets in there and how well you ventilation might be working.