Leaving my chickens for ~4-5 days

[Folly's place]

Your local veterinary clinic may have someone who will pet sit for you, or have a list of such folks. Here we have friends and neighbors who fill in, and we do the same for them.
When we are gone, the birds stay in their coop and covered run, which is really safe, rather than chance them being outside on their own. And whoever checks on them daily gets all the eggs.
Mary

 

[rosemarythyme]

We rarely travel but we've still set up for it in case it's needed.

At the very least figure out how much feed and water you go through, and plan on having extra available. Example: If your feeder normally lasts 3 days before you refill it, and you'll be gone 3 days, I'd have an extra bowl of food out as a buffer.

As far as opening/closing the coop, I don't know what your set up looks like nor what climate concerns there might be (extreme heat?) Any photos? I don't know if you have a run or how predator proof it is. In general it's probably better to just leave the coop door open for the chickens if you have no other option, but that does potentially leave you at risk of predator attack.

Yes I've had an auto door for years and for me it's a great investment, however since you don't already have one it's not realistic to expect that you could get one, get it installed, and test it thoroughly in a short period of time. I previously had my neighbor come and open/close up the coop, but she's elderly (and now moving away) and plus there's avian flu, so we don't want anyone in the chicken area anyhow.

 

[Mrs. K]

I just put in an automatic feeder, and have a couple of large supplies of water. I leave the pop up door open between my coop and run. I often times can have someone come and check on them once or twice while I am gone. They can get and keep the eggs.

If you let the eggs pile up, often times it might trigger a broody.

I would never bring in 31 chickens into our house or garage, the mess would be terrible, and our garage gets WAY TOO HOT.

Mrs K

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I would never bring in 31 chickens into our house or garage, the mess would be terrible, and our garage gets WAY TOO HOT.

Yes, I agree. My garage is too hot also - but many folks have air-conditioned garages. I don't know about the OP.

Let me explain why I would bring my chickens inside .... I live in the country and have abundant populations of racoons, coyotes, and foxes. Coons raid the chicken run very frequently. Hubby shoots 'em every chance he gets, but within a few weeks, they're back and bring their buddies. Our run is chain link fencing 8' high and enclosed along the bottom. Coyotes and foxes can't get in, but racoons scale the fence. Gate is secure. But I don't have any cover over it - 40' wide and 50' long, that's 2000 square feet that I cannot afford to enclose the top, besides figuring out even how to engineer it.

The coop is an old camper trailer on cement blocks, in the center of the run. Removed the screens and installed hardware cloth. Reinforced any points of entry. Lockable entry door and pop-door. So the birds are safe inside their coop at night while the 'coons have their party and hubby has target practice. I do move all feeders inside the coop when I lock them up at night, and check the run for any potential leftovers that would attract the varmints. It's the best I can do.

If I left for 4-5 days with the pop-door open, I would most certainly come home to all dead and missing chickens.

So.... If I HAD to leave for 4-5 days and had absolutely no one to tend to the birds, I would have no other choice. I'd clear the basement (or put all the stuff in one end and barricade it), throw wood chips on the floor, make some quick roosts, and bring 'em all inside. All 71 of them. It's a cement floor with a floor drain at one end. I could pretty easily sweep/scoop up all the mess, hose it down, and sanitize. It would be less trouble than starting over with a new flock.

 

[Tookie]

Hi,
I got my chicks in January of this year so they’re about 7 months old and laying.
I am leaving for a long weekend and don’t know what to do with the chickens.
I have nobody to come let them out in the morning/ lock them up at night. I’ve researched auto doors to install but don’t want to spend a bunch of money on something that won’t work.

Please send advice or help on what to do with chickens when you go out of town!!

I don’t have anyone to help, are there resources online to help hire someone? I’m in Austin, TX.

Try and post in the Texas state thread and ask if anybody can do the chickens. Here's the link.->
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/texas.44/

 

[Mrs. K]

Barnyard Chaos - I too live in the country and I have fed an insane number of coons. I swear I have the smartest coons in the state.

Last summer, after the last wreck, where the coons opened an automatic door and wiped me out, I was for quitting. But my DH tore down my run, that was not coon tight, and rebuilt it with chain link fence. We went over the top with the chain link too, hooking it together with hog rings.

I have not had a coon win since! Hurray! We have even caught coons in the near by feed building, and I didn't loose a bird.

So my point, is finish your run with some two by fours and chainlink fencing. It is WORTH IT!

If I brought that many birds into my house, I might not loose any chickens but I would darn sure loose a husband! haha

Mrs K

 

[BarnyardChaos]

So my point, is finish your run with some two by fours and chainlink fencing. It is WORTH IT!

If I brought that many birds into my house, I might not loose any chickens but I would darn sure loose a husband! haha

LOL You're probably right! I think my hubby might throw a fit if I even suggested it. It's all conjecture anyway - if something happened in which we had to leave, there are quite a number of neighbors and teenagers in the area, whom we know and have animals of their own. No shortage of pet sitters, here.