I'm so upset. I went on vacation to visit my daughter who I've not seen since she moved last summer. I was gone 9 days. Boarded dogs and found a chicken sitter. Bonus! She is a 4th year vet student! Great! Or so I thought.
We have cameras, which I informed her of their locations.
Her jobs:
-Check and fill food dishes
-Check and fill water buckets
-Toss some treats in the compost pile in the mornings.
-Bring (friendly) rooster inside at night and back outside in the morning.
-Check one chicken's crop at night and adjust crop bra if needed.
Her compensation was an average of 10+ eggs daily and her requested $10/day.
We have an automatic coop door we open and close with our app so nights were on her own schedule and mornings I asked her to come between 8 and 9:30 am.
We knew something was off when we saw the rooster come out with the girls on the second morning when we opened the pop door. Messaged her and found out she locked a hen inside.
We could see the water bucket getting light and we never saw her open the feed cans (replay on camera) so we asked our son to check on them. Water inside coop was almost empty and water bucket in run was empty. This is where they stay from roosting time to 7:30 am so.... And the water bucket in the fenced run (which we saw swinging) was nearly empty. Food bowl down to dust. No water in the rooster's cage. So son fed and watered and would go back again to get a better look in the daytime.
He went back again to find the coop door nearly broken and he topped off the food and water.
And the entire week her average morning arrival time was 10 am.
We heard her and a friend laughing one night when she was there to put the rooster up.
This afternoon I came home to the broken coop door (which she still has yet to inform me of) nesting box door half off and not locked, water bucket in run empty, food bowl almost down to dust, one chicken sneezing with nasal discharge, another with a mostly closed eye, crop bra disheveled and some weird looking poops throughout the fenced in run among other small things.
Am I wrong to be so upset? Did I expect too much for too small compensation? This is my first time having a chicken sitter. We checked in on her periodically and she said always said everything was good so....I did pay her because she did at least get the rooster in and out for us.
Anyways, I'll be posting about my girl's closed eye next. I'm not sure what happened.
We have cameras, which I informed her of their locations.
Her jobs:
-Check and fill food dishes
-Check and fill water buckets
-Toss some treats in the compost pile in the mornings.
-Bring (friendly) rooster inside at night and back outside in the morning.
-Check one chicken's crop at night and adjust crop bra if needed.
Her compensation was an average of 10+ eggs daily and her requested $10/day.
We have an automatic coop door we open and close with our app so nights were on her own schedule and mornings I asked her to come between 8 and 9:30 am.
We knew something was off when we saw the rooster come out with the girls on the second morning when we opened the pop door. Messaged her and found out she locked a hen inside.
We could see the water bucket getting light and we never saw her open the feed cans (replay on camera) so we asked our son to check on them. Water inside coop was almost empty and water bucket in run was empty. This is where they stay from roosting time to 7:30 am so.... And the water bucket in the fenced run (which we saw swinging) was nearly empty. Food bowl down to dust. No water in the rooster's cage. So son fed and watered and would go back again to get a better look in the daytime.
He went back again to find the coop door nearly broken and he topped off the food and water.
And the entire week her average morning arrival time was 10 am.
We heard her and a friend laughing one night when she was there to put the rooster up.
This afternoon I came home to the broken coop door (which she still has yet to inform me of) nesting box door half off and not locked, water bucket in run empty, food bowl almost down to dust, one chicken sneezing with nasal discharge, another with a mostly closed eye, crop bra disheveled and some weird looking poops throughout the fenced in run among other small things.
Am I wrong to be so upset? Did I expect too much for too small compensation? This is my first time having a chicken sitter. We checked in on her periodically and she said always said everything was good so....I did pay her because she did at least get the rooster in and out for us.
Anyways, I'll be posting about my girl's closed eye next. I'm not sure what happened.
