If you go on vacation...............??

[Snipes]

i am facing this as well, 3 indoor tame ducks and I can get family and friends to pitch in but it's not something they do for fun. My issue is more of that fact that I bring them in at night, and most of the time they free roam in diapers for the evening. The latter is not as important as bringing them in to keep them safe from predators because they do have a large dog pen they can sleep in, but I love having them hang on the couch and socialize if possible. It's tough to find sitters alright!


I wonder if it would be possible to set up an area or the forum, or a web page where we basically get a network of duck/chicken/farm animal etc owners from different parts of the country (or other countries aside from the USA of course) and we basically exchange sitting for $ or future reciprocal sittings. We can rate people as far as being reliable or trustworthy, so in the beginning it might be a little hairy since you might not know your sitter much or at all, but can you imagine how nice it would be for you to be able to look up the fellow duckers closeby and be in a position to get someone to look after your guys while you're gone? The "where are you" forum rooms are nice, but it seems hard to be able to find what you're looking for with sitters.
In the spirit of this idea, if anyone in the Seattle area needs a sitter, let me know!

 

[sourland]

I would worry about the birds becoming sick or injured. I have someone who comes in once a day. She came to see my set up. I showed her what I do and she gave me a price that was acceptable to me. I provide her with the following phone numbers: our destination, my cell, my wife's cell, my daughter's #, my best friend's #, my vet's #, and still I worry. If we get home in the middle of the night, I go out with a flashlight to make sure everything is OK. If I did not have someone coming in on a daily basis, I would be unable to leave my animals.

 

[Miss Lydia]

It would have to be the same set up as sourland, and since i don't have a set up like that I don't travel, which is okay I love to be home with my animals.

 

[Caprice_Acres]

I simply don't go on vacation, or at least I don't leave for more than a day except on REALLY rare occassions. I brought all these animals to my farm - they are MY responsibility. In getting the animals, I did all the research and am the person best able to care for them. I don't trust many other people with my animals. Goodness knows, things will go wrong when I'm not home to fix the problem or prevent it from happening in the first place. Heck, my goats would gorge themselves on feed if ONE door isn't latched accidentally by a good intending helping hand - and that would result in bloat and likely death in hands of the inexperienced. IF you have predator problems with your poultry - one unlatched door could wreak havoc on your flock overnight.

The most I do is go away overnight or for a day - like at a rabbit show. My dad can milk my dairy goats, and if I set feed out for the chickens/geese/guineas/ducks he can dump it in feed pans for them. I've tried to leave for a weekend, even if I have my dad and TWO backup farmers to call in an emergency... I freaked and had to come home. I worried, worried, worried.

My dad has his signiture on file for ADGA, in case that he has to sell the dairy goats in the event that I cannot care for them or sell them forwhatever reason.

Two of my good friends could help my dad care for my goats in an absolute emergency. IF I did want to go on vacation, I'm sure I could convince one or both to help me. They already help if my goats are kidding and I have class or something.

But generally, I cannot justify the risk.