Hi! We will be moving to TN from FL in 2 months! I have 11 chickens and I was wondering how we move them? Should I sell them and just get new ones up there?
We just moved from VA to KY a few months ago, and I had about 30 chickens and about 15 newly hatched baby chicks in the car. What I did was first sell my coop at the old house and build another one in the new house. On chicken moving day I loaded up two LARGE boxes inside my SUV and a small box for the front seat. I put shavings in the boxes. At night I grabbed the chickens and placed them inside the boxes. They slept all night during our drive with no problems. The car didn't even smell (which I was afraid of). You want to drive at night while they're asleep. I ended up sleeping for a few hours and didn't make it to my destination until about 10am, so the chickens were wide awake. The roosters didn't start crowing till about 9am, but it sure was funny to stop at the gas station to fill up and have roosters crowing (I felt like everyone was staring at me). As I took each chicken out of the box and put them into the new coop, I gave each one a dusting with Sevin Dust. I kept them locked up in the coop the rest of the day and allowed them to free range the next day. It all worked out great! I would recommend doing everything at night if you can.
I'm rather fond of my birds and I really would not want to start over. My ducks and geese all ride very nicely in the car. They travel in dog airline crates. It depends upon how fond you are of the birds and how difficult they would be to replace. If they are mixed breed or hatchery birds, they would be very easy to replace, so I suggest that you take any that are special pets and either eat or re-home the rest. Because it would be much easier just to start over with fresh birds. Call your USDA vet and find out what the regulations are for taking the birds across state lines.
