Taking my chickens with me on weekends to the cabin ??

[Eureka Jennifer]

Oh yes I am serious...

I was wondering if anyone had any experience, ideas or suggestions about this. Our chickens live at sea level in their home coop, but we have another coop up at the cabin which is at 3000 feet and an hour and a half away in the car. I wanted to find out if this was okay to do before I did it and hurt them. We have no one to watch them on the weekends and they are spoiled and complain very loudly when they are not let out to free range. We will be going to our property a lot and I am trying to find a good option.

any ideas please...

 

[Kittymomma]

I don't think it will hurt them, but I doubt if it will make them happy. They won't recognize the cabin coop as home anyway so will probably still have to stay in the coop. All in all I bet they'd be more content (not content, just more content) if you hung a cabbage and maybe some suet in their coop at home and left them there.

 

[SunnyDawn]

I agree with Kittymomma. Check with your vet as well about possible health risks. The more stressed an animal is the lower their resistance to illness. Also a change in elevation is bad for some animals.

 

[patandchickens]

It's not a particularly kind thing to do to the chickens, IMHO. Chickens do NOT do well with change; and the only way to keep them safe from predators (which are going to be much more abundant in the sorts of locations where one has a cabin) is to lock them up in a safe cage indoors (an outdoor cage is only ok when you're directly supervising them), which is not much of a way for a chicken to live if you ask me.

Much better to lock them in the coop and run (if you don't have a run, now is a good time to build one

) at home. You can almost always find someone to check on them if you ask around enough. But even if, worst case scenario, it were TRULY impossible, despite seriously trying a lot, to find someone to check on them while you're gone, IMHO it would STILL be kinder and safer to leave them at home, with a couple of well-filled waterers attached in a spillproof way and plenty of things to do.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Eureka Jennifer]

Thank you all so much, I believe I will be on the look out for a chicken sitter. You are right it is better to be locked up in coop than overly stressed out for 3 days.