How Do You Go on Vacation?

[rosemarythyme]

How about your rooster(s)? I've not had anyone take care of my chickens and guineas yet in over three years having them. But when my son stayed with me for several months last year due to 'the virus' my rooster would attack him. The rooster obviously knew this guy was a stranger and a danger to his girls. I believe he would attack a caregiver. He jumped me the other night not knowing it was me. I was in the chook house and trying to get the girls out of the way to do something and they fussed and he ripped in though the pop door and jumped me. His spurs are trimmed and he can't do any harm if a person wears long pants but it is so scary being attacked by a rooster. I'm sure a caregiver would run and not come back. I have to come up with a way for chores to be done without Henry interfering.

Possibilities:
1) No more vacations while he's alive.
2) Automate as much of the set up as possible so caretaker doesn't need to go in except in emergency - i.e. have double the amount of food needed available and in place, a backup waterer, auto pop door, roll out nest boxes if you don't have external access to nests (so caretaker can pick up eggs from outside without ever going in).

I find 1 much easier but I'm mostly set up for 2 just in case.

 

[NatJ]

How about your rooster(s)? ... I have to come up with a way for chores to be done without Henry interfering.

You could make a pop door between the coop and run that can be operated from outside.

Close that pop door, look which side Henry is on, tend food/water/eggs in the spot he is not, open the pop door again. If you arrange food & water in both the coop and the run, someone could tend just one set of food & water, depending on where Henry was that day. Since Henry would most likely be in the run, they could probably collect eggs as well. Of course, they would have to remember to re-open the pop door when done, or you'd have problems.

Or have them come tend chickens in the dark, when the chickens are all on the roost and asleep.

Or have them wear heavy clothes, and come practice tending chickens a few times before you actually go away. If you are willing to put up with Henry, you might find someone else who can too, if they are warned in advance and have a chance to practice. I think the surprise of the rooster attacking is often the worse part. (Yes, I know roosters can cause actual injury sometimes, just saying I see a lot more stories of scared people than of injured people.)

 

[CassieD]

We have a pet sitter come to care for our two dogs and two cats. I got her her own inexpensive shoes to use in the run and she gets to keep any eggs she finds. Shoes can track infection into the coop/run, not to mention chicken poop into a house and yard. We have an automatic chicken door, a treadle feeder (wonderful invention) that holds a lot of food and a waterer that holds 10 gallons of water. But still I worry that the door might lock them in (apart from food or water) or out where they are at risk at night, or they will knock over the waterer and it will run dry, or get stuck in the chicken door, etc. Chickens are rather clumsy creatures and can find a million ways to injure themselves or each other. That’s why a neighbor or pet sitter is a good thing

 

[Padfoot22]

My sister-in-law will come over to feed/water our cats and chickens when we go out of town. I don’t ask her to let the chickens out to free range because she only can come once daily. Unfortunately she doesn’t like fresh eggs ( I don’t know why) so I pay her with gifts from wherever we went or cash or both.

 

[jsr5]

My nephew is my house sitting and chicken keeping answer I dunno what I'm gonna do when he graduates Highschool this year and takes off and running on me.

 

[Abriana]

A mutual agreement is the best in my opinion--we do that with our dogs. Basically, if you watch my animals while I'm away I'll watch yours while you're away, free of cost for both of us. We do that with one family for our chickens, but when we go far and for a while, and have to actually take the birds over there we pay them usually (we've only done that 2x). Our usual vacation is three weeks (we stay in our camper at a campground and go sailing!), and my dad only comes up on weekends because he has to work. On the weekends we pay a friend's daughter to do it. We don't vacation too much, and we usually don't go far (three hours away, but sometimes we go to Minnesota which is 21 for us! My dad's family lives there) so animal sitting usually isn't an issue.

 

[Xouie]

We only go for a few days at a time. We leave everybirdy with ample food and water and just trust them not to throw any wild house parties or raid the liquor cabinet.

 

[JEN4444]

Hello! I was just thinking, and there doesn't seem to be many threads about it. How do you go on vacation when you have ducks/chickens? If I get ducks, I need to be able to leave them for a couple days, and have someone come to check on them only once. Your ideas are very welcome!!

I've been wondering about this, too. We have a close neighbor with chickens, but they already trade pet-sitting with another neighbor who watches their chickens and dog. Does anyone know of a website where people trade pet-sitting? Doesn't that seem like something that's needed?

 

[KaleIAm]

I've been wondering about this, too. We have a close neighbor with chickens, but they already trade pet-sitting with another neighbor who watches their chickens and dog. Does anyone know of a website where people trade pet-sitting? Doesn't that seem like something that's needed?

You might be able to find someone on Nextdoor. That app is very focused on neighbors, even though it isn't pet specific.

 

[catballou]

Same here! Feeds cats, lets them in and out, fills water, checks food. We give her 5$. She makes a lot of money off of us too, we go to the beach a lot for the fishing season. I am not the fisher lol! But the boys are.

I'd pay $20 a day for reliable help!