Leaving the chickens for a few days-piog...

[FarmingCityGirl]

We're going camping in a week or 2...and I'm worried about leaving the chickens. Every morning, I take food & water out to them. I get eggs out twice a day. So far, the most I've gotten in a day is 6...but we have 12 laying chickens and in a couple weeks we may be getting 12 eggs a day.

So if we leave for a few days, is it okay if I put a ton of food and water out...and are the eggs okay to just kind of build up till we get back? Would they be okay to eat after sitting out there for 2 full days...possibly 3? There might be a lot of eggs. We don't have any neighbors to come help out.

 

[Kelsie2290]

There are a couple of things that would concern me about doing that.
With that many eggs just collecting and sitting there for three days, I think you are asking for one of the hens to start egg eating. Chickens tend to pick favorite nests to lay in and with a big pile of eggs in a nest somebody is probably going to break one.
If they are clean and not cracked or anything, the eggs themselves should be fine to eat even after three days, some people don't refrigerate their eggs at all.
Leaving anything in the summer heat for three days without having someone to come check on them, especially water, bothers me. Even if you set out 100 sources of water, with bad luck they will manage to turn them all over or empty them etc.

 

[chfite]

In the past, I have hired a babysitter to come check on the animals, feed, water, and such. Good, reliable babysitters are generally well-known at your church, work, or school. It may be that ten dollars a day and free eggs might be just the ticket.

I don't like to leave my animals unattended.

Chris

 

[debid]

I go on short vacations often and we're very rural -- no close neighbors to stop by. I use a five-gallon bucket with poultry nipples as their regular waterer and there are two eleven-pound hanging feeders in the coop so preparation is to fill them fuller than normal. That's it. If I'm going for longer, I have someone stop by every two or three days to get eggs and just make sure all is well but I don't bother for a 3-day weekend.