How to Move with Chickens?!

[Kris5902]

Congratulations on the purchase! Moving is always stressful, but I’m sure the chickens will handle it ok, and love the extra room on the new property. They actually handle travel quite well if there are no temperature extremes (mostly heat) in my experience. I’ve had people come up to me on the ferry to ask if my Jeep is really crowing some mornings (tinted windows). And I love your handle BTW. Look forward to seeing you and more of your progress in the future here on BYC!

 

[tdan]

Delay closing on your old home a week. Tell them its for cleaning, usually works fine.

 

[kristeninprogress]

Delay closing on your old home a week. Tell them its for cleaning, usually works fine.

I'm closing contingent, so we can't close on new home until we close on current home.

 

[Folly's place]

There's nothing fun about moving!
Mary

 

[kristeninprogress]

There's nothing fun about moving!
Mary

Yeah, the actual moving part is awful! I always love the fresh start, though!

 

[Kris5902]

Our last move was into a storage locker... almost three years ago. I’m hoping to progress myself some this year and have our house built out enough to move the stuff into at the least. The move prior was from two separate houses and two additional storage lockers. In different cities. We moved 4house holds in one day into one house and a garage for storage. That one we hired movers for... and I would again 100% they got the full sized sofa it took us an hour to move into my basement suite out in 5 minutes! And unlike us they didn’t have to remove a stair railing and two doors to do it if you can afford movers for most of it, it is well worth it. My super valuables (cats, crystal collection, and jewelry) we moved ourselves in the car. Not that they weren’t awesome professionals, but my babies don’t get transported except by me and DH!

 

[kristeninprogress]

Our last move was into a storage locker... almost three years ago. I’m hoping to progress myself some this year and have our house built out enough to move the stuff into at the least. The move prior was from two separate houses and two additional storage lockers. In different cities. We moved 4house holds in one day into one house and a garage for storage. That one we hired movers for... and I would again 100% they got the full sized sofa it took us an hour to move into my basement suite out in 5 minutes! And unlike us they didn’t have to remove a stair railing and two doors to do it if you can afford movers for most of it, it is well worth it. My super valuables (cats, crystal collection, and jewelry) we moved ourselves in the car. Not that they weren’t awesome professionals, but my babies don’t get transported except by me and DH!

Man, that sounds like a lot!! Luckily, we're downsizing on the house part, so we're selling/ donating most of our stuff. Hopefully that makes moving a little easier.

 

[GemmaGA]

Very thankful for this thread - lots of great info and advice! I myself am moving in a few weeks. Very similar scenario - luckily our new house is only about 10 minutes away so hopefully it will be easy peasy. My biggest concern at this point is moving the coop. The new owners may want us to leave it, we left it as an option - but if not, our coop is custom built and my hubby assures me that it can be moved but man.....the logistics of it all.

We have a pole barn at the new house and we are thinking we might make some kind of temp enclosure at the new house using part of the pole barn until we can re-assemble the existing coop or build a new one.

I am planning to move the chickens (8 total about 10 mo old) in a large metal dog crate in the back of an enclosed box trailer, secured of course.

 

[Folly's place]

Do plan to make your temporary coop predator proof!!!
Mary

 

[CaroleW]

In an absolute pinch you can also do cardboard boxes with lots of ventilation holes cut in, but I have managed to collect a good number of cat sized crates. I also have three commercial chicken transport crates for taking my birds to the processing plant. They are designed to prevent them from standing up fully to prevent them moving around or pecking each other/fighting. It is counterintuitively best practice to pack them in tightly so there’s not a lot of room for movement. This is the chicken equivalent of wearing a seatbelt. Legs and wings are fragile, sudden movements or rough country roads, you want to prevent injury. Of course this isn’t possible with tiny chicks. We use this in transporting the sheep as well, 15 adult sheep will fit in a standard cargo van.

It seems a little cruel, but it is best to transport without feed and water if at all possible. It took me a while to wrap my head around this, but unless it’s going to be a very long journey having feed and water is actually more detrimental, it spills soaking them, they could choke on it, and it will most certainly become fouled with poop. If it’s going to be a long trip or have very hot weather, then a stop for feed and water out of the crate is how I manage it. I had an all day early fall trip where I decided not to process one of my roosters, so while the other boys were all joining freezer camp and I was working at the plant with DH, he relaxed loose in the van with some feed and water in the shade. Of course this also meant I had to catch him and put him back into a crate for the trip home. He didn’t really eat or drink much anyway.

Yes I've also used cardboard boxes (cheap from Wmart - plan how many can go in each - how much room you have, maybe you can afford one in each small box, since very affordable at a couple dollars each box) with straw in bottom and a few more side air holes drilled in - I completely agree that food & water is not recommended - especially water -it WILL spill and soak the box bottoms or pool in a carrier. Box bottoms are wet and unstable loosening your tape... You may not realize and pick up cardboard box that might let a bird(s) fall thru bottom!

If you use many boxes/crates that need to be stacked ---
Test fit how the boxes & how crates will fit into car/truck/backseat & how you can stack and make level the crates (folded towels or yoga mats make good levelers) if needed without covering air holes. How you physically get the boxes in - do you have to scoot seat up really far? Do you have to rotate boxes to get them all in & does that maneuvering work when a chicken is inside the box?