Temporarily moving chickens to new location?

[redshoes37]

I'm going to be going on vacation for a week, and I'm wondering if there is any downside to moving my 10 chickens to my brother's chicken run for the week, and then returning them to our backyard when we get back. My brother's run is huge, so we could easily set up a barrier in his run to separate my chickens from his, but mine wouldn't have a coop.

The reason I want to move them is because they tend to make quite a bit of noise first thing in the morning (about 5:45), and we live in a neighborhood. I usually go quiet them down in the morning. My brothers place is much more rural and so noise in the morning isn't as big of a deal.

Is moving them for a week a good idea? Any other suggestions on how I can quiet them down in the morning?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Let’s look at three things. First biosecurity. Does your flock have a disease they are immune to but that could infect his? Does his flock have immunity to something that could infect yours? Flocks sometimes develop flock immunity to certain things. They pass these disease organisms to each other, maybe by pecking at each other’s poop, drinking from the same water, or even just things carried by the wind. Coccidiosis is a good example, but other diseases are also possible.

How secure is his run from predators? Chickens are most at risk from predators at night since many are more active at night and they can roam around undisturbed.

The last one is that chickens get used to a territory. If you keep them contained during the day, they should be OK, but if you move them and let them free range, they may go looking for their old home until they get used to the new place as home. This could happen in the move there or the move back. And chickens don’t like change. They could get stressed out and egg production drop temporarily. The pecking order may be disturbed by a move and they may have to resort that.

You can certainly move them out there and back, but there are some risks involved. I have no idea how big those risks are in your unique situation or how much you are willing to risk.

As far as keeping them quieter in the morning, the only thing I can think of is to not let them out of the coop as early so their sound is muffled, that is if your coop is big enough you can leave them in there.