So this weekend we got an extremely short notice call from my husbands mother telling us the his sisters are headed to her house in OK (we live in IL,) and that she is really hoping for us to be there as well, that night! So after many phone calls, and trying to tell his mother that we are very short for money since we have a lot tied up this week in supplies for building more rabbit hutches, dental work, mortgage, and whatnot. We finally decide at that we're going. I had an hour to pack for myself, my husband, and our daughter, plus snacks, drinks, maps, and things for my daughter to keep to entertained during the drive. After all of that was done I ran to the neighbors to ask his daughter who usually helps with the rabbits, and chickens while we're gone if she could just feed, and water the rabbits while we were gone, because I had set a TON of extra food, and water in the coop for the chickens. She said she had a horse show that she was going to so I ran to our other neighbors, and his wife said she would watch the rabbits for us. So I set their hay, and pellets buy the garage door with a note saying fill bowls with pellets, and give each rabbit 2 handfuls of hay.
We set off on a long long drive being that we driving very late at night already. We get to his parents, and crash as soon as we get there, because we had finally pulled in at 7AM! O.O Friday goes by without a word from our neighbor so we assume everything is just fine. Saturday afternoon comes, and I get this text saying OMG OMG OMG the chickens! What do I do, you didn't leave out ANY food for me to give to them, what do I do?! I sent back, I gave them a lot of extra food, and water before we left, so they are okay which is why I didn't mention that you needed to do anything for them. If you'd like there's a pile of weeds I cut from the garden in the backyard. You can toss those in there, and just check that they still have water. She texts me back a few hours later that she gave them the weeds, and they just looked at her. (They always do that to me, but they eat it as soon as I look away, lol.) Which I told her that they will eat them, we half free range them so some days they get their grains, and others they get grass/weeds. She said nothing for the rest of the trip.
We left OK Sunday around 11AM, and got home by 7PM. It was still pretty much daylight out so I got the Veggies from the gardens, made my rounds with checking the animals. My husband, and I decided we would take her 2 dozen eggs as a thank you. When we get to her house, and offer her the eggs. She looks at us, and says, oh no. I do not want those. There is chicken **** in your coop, and I saw a few eggs that had poop on them in the nest boxes. I just left them there. I'm not touching that! My jaw hit the floor. She has bought a lot of eggs from us in the past. I looked at her, and said. Where exactly do you think the eggs comes from?! The chickens ***!! There's bound to be a bit of poo on a few of them! Have you ever gotten an egg out of my carton that had **** on it?! No? That's because/why you wash your eggs, before you give them to people! Then she goes on to tell me that the chickens knocked a few of their water buckets off their chains, and there was ****/dirt on the buckets she didn't know which, but she didn't touch that either, but she did go back to her house, and get a bag of dog food that she won't give her to dog, and gave it to the chickens, because she felt the weeds, and grass wasn't enough.
By this point I was doing I was doing all that I could not to lose it. Yes, there is **** in the coop. CHICKENS **** EVERYWHERE!! That's just what they do! Then she goes on to say, well can't you put a nice hardwood floor in the coop? I told her that there's no sense in it, because it's just going to get ruined in a week. I told her, I do a big clean out 2-3 times a year. Meaning I scrape the run down to the dirt, and toss the waste in the compost pile, then I soak everything, and scrub it down with very mild bleach water. She starts to tell me about how only doing it that way is very poor, and cruel living conditions for my chickens. I told her that she needs to go look up how the chickens live that produce eggs for grocery stores, and then she come say something to me about how my chickens.
We set off on a long long drive being that we driving very late at night already. We get to his parents, and crash as soon as we get there, because we had finally pulled in at 7AM! O.O Friday goes by without a word from our neighbor so we assume everything is just fine. Saturday afternoon comes, and I get this text saying OMG OMG OMG the chickens! What do I do, you didn't leave out ANY food for me to give to them, what do I do?! I sent back, I gave them a lot of extra food, and water before we left, so they are okay which is why I didn't mention that you needed to do anything for them. If you'd like there's a pile of weeds I cut from the garden in the backyard. You can toss those in there, and just check that they still have water. She texts me back a few hours later that she gave them the weeds, and they just looked at her. (They always do that to me, but they eat it as soon as I look away, lol.) Which I told her that they will eat them, we half free range them so some days they get their grains, and others they get grass/weeds. She said nothing for the rest of the trip.
We left OK Sunday around 11AM, and got home by 7PM. It was still pretty much daylight out so I got the Veggies from the gardens, made my rounds with checking the animals. My husband, and I decided we would take her 2 dozen eggs as a thank you. When we get to her house, and offer her the eggs. She looks at us, and says, oh no. I do not want those. There is chicken **** in your coop, and I saw a few eggs that had poop on them in the nest boxes. I just left them there. I'm not touching that! My jaw hit the floor. She has bought a lot of eggs from us in the past. I looked at her, and said. Where exactly do you think the eggs comes from?! The chickens ***!! There's bound to be a bit of poo on a few of them! Have you ever gotten an egg out of my carton that had **** on it?! No? That's because/why you wash your eggs, before you give them to people! Then she goes on to tell me that the chickens knocked a few of their water buckets off their chains, and there was ****/dirt on the buckets she didn't know which, but she didn't touch that either, but she did go back to her house, and get a bag of dog food that she won't give her to dog, and gave it to the chickens, because she felt the weeds, and grass wasn't enough.
By this point I was doing I was doing all that I could not to lose it. Yes, there is **** in the coop. CHICKENS **** EVERYWHERE!! That's just what they do! Then she goes on to say, well can't you put a nice hardwood floor in the coop? I told her that there's no sense in it, because it's just going to get ruined in a week. I told her, I do a big clean out 2-3 times a year. Meaning I scrape the run down to the dirt, and toss the waste in the compost pile, then I soak everything, and scrub it down with very mild bleach water. She starts to tell me about how only doing it that way is very poor, and cruel living conditions for my chickens. I told her that she needs to go look up how the chickens live that produce eggs for grocery stores, and then she come say something to me about how my chickens.
) Seriously though, I've always done a walk through ahead of time with a couple of friends or neighbors as well as leaving a detailed set of printed instructions so they would know exactly what they were getting into and what to do when they had to take care of our flock for us while we were away. At least up to this point, it's always worked well.
