- May 11, 2008
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I need to be away 2 nights and 1 1/2 days. I had arranged two weeks ago for a licensed insured supposedly professional pet sitter to come and let the chickens out of their coop during the day, and lock them up at night (they are yarded, not in a run, though they have a small pen attached to their coop) and check feed and water. But the pet sitter missed two appointments to walk through the routine, and now I am stuck. Very difficult to find another pet sitter and the one close neighbor I have, who once agreed to duck sit for me, forgot to come and feed my ducks, so I can't really ask her either.
I have ten, eight week old RIR and Red Stars and five 4 week old baby chicks. The babies I am going to pen up in the house, but the eight week olds I feel like I can try to move into the basement (not a great option as it is full of stuff) or I can build a hardware cloth pen around their existing coop tomorrow with u posts and hope that it keeps them safe for a couple of nights when they are in the coop/pen. Their present pen around it is just 6 by 8 and so would be way too small if I add 2 or 3 feeders and waterers each for redundancy in this hot weather. It's really just a holding pen that they wait in until I let them out in the morning to free range. Mostly I am worried about them running out of food and water due to their knocking feeders/waterers over or through some accident. It's supposed to be very hot this weekend. So I plan to have 2 2 gallon waterers (for ten 8 week chicks) and one 11 pound feeder. Is that enough? I am not sure what is safer -- leaving them out in their accustomed coop and pen and just trying to expand it, or bringing them into an unfamilar basement and trying to make that safe. Neither is ideal, so I'm looking for opinions.
I have ten, eight week old RIR and Red Stars and five 4 week old baby chicks. The babies I am going to pen up in the house, but the eight week olds I feel like I can try to move into the basement (not a great option as it is full of stuff) or I can build a hardware cloth pen around their existing coop tomorrow with u posts and hope that it keeps them safe for a couple of nights when they are in the coop/pen. Their present pen around it is just 6 by 8 and so would be way too small if I add 2 or 3 feeders and waterers each for redundancy in this hot weather. It's really just a holding pen that they wait in until I let them out in the morning to free range. Mostly I am worried about them running out of food and water due to their knocking feeders/waterers over or through some accident. It's supposed to be very hot this weekend. So I plan to have 2 2 gallon waterers (for ten 8 week chicks) and one 11 pound feeder. Is that enough? I am not sure what is safer -- leaving them out in their accustomed coop and pen and just trying to expand it, or bringing them into an unfamilar basement and trying to make that safe. Neither is ideal, so I'm looking for opinions.