Taking Vacation? Who covers the flock mgmt for you?

[nanawendy]

We live in a University town... a lot of starving students in our church. In the past we have had many wanting to help. The extra cash for them stimulates the economy

The problem... every time we try to go an emergency come up and we have to cancel.

My suggestion... be willing to pay for good help. Then they will want to come back again.

 

[speckledhen]

I don't trust anyone to watch my birds for me except friends who live out of state. And we don't go on vacations anyway. Too many horror stories of pet sitters allowing horrible things to happen to the flock.

 

[woodmort]

I've done everything from hire a teenager to a professional "pet sitter". We've used the latter for the last couple of time we've gone away for extended periods--she comes in once a day and feeds cats and feeds chickens and takes eggs--costs us $20 a day. If we go away for overnight--say Fri morning to Sat. evening--I don't have anyone. The cats don't need to be fed or let out, we just leave enough dry food and clean litter boxes and the feeders/waterers hold enough food/water for a couple of days. I even left our week-old chicks for a couple of days with this arrangement and they were fine. I do keep the birds in lockdown for the duration, however, as there is no way I want someone, other than myself or my wife, being responsible for making sure they are locked in for the night. They're always happy to see me when I get back and that's usually the first place I go after unloading the car.

My worst experience was with a teenage son of a friend who I hired to take care of our chickens for a week while we were on an extended trip. At the time I was raising Cornish-X's for meat. It was in August and one of those 90+ degree heat waves hit. Poor kid didn't know what to do as the darn chickens started keeling over from the heat--just garbage bagged them. Lost about 10 of the 25. That was about 20 years ago and every time I see the kid I remind him about it. I think his parents felt worse about it than I did. I'm sure I could have save them but he had no experience--was before cell phones so no way he could have contacted me. Morale: be prepared for the unexpected.