Moving my chickens to a new location

[amandathewatergirl]

Low and behold I am moving. I am not happy about it, but it is a must at this point. I cannot keep my ladies with me at my new place but have a great friend who is going to keep them in her backyard for the 6-9 months I need. She lives close and I can still perform daily duties, see my ladies, etc.

My questions are:

1. How should I move them? Boxes with air holes? It is only about a 25 min drive.

2. If I cannot keep their current hen house, what kind of issues do I face introducing them to a new one?

3. What kind of laying interference will this cause? 3 of my 6 birds are laying now, the last one just laid her first egg today. I figure I am moving them in about a month or less so most of them will be laying by then.

4. Any tips on what I can do to prepare them? Prepare the new space? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers and thanks everyone! Happy laying!

 

[fordmommy]

Sorry you have to move.

But the move shouldn't be too bad.

Boxes with air holes would be fine. I traveled 3 hours with 8 chickens in the back of my DH car. In boxes with air holes. Lots of ventalation is the key. I was nice out so we had the windows open and I checked on them a lot. We had put a little pine shavings in the bottom of the boxes also. They didn't seem to mind at all. They were very quiet.

Chickens seem to take moving to a new home pretty well too. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Good luck with your move. Hope that helps.