Transporting Chickens---Suggestions?

[ldanielsanderson]

I'm going to be taking 10 eleven-week-old hens on an eight-hour drive to their new home.

I've never transported chickens before and I'm looking for suggestions.

We plan on catching them early in the morning while they're sleeping and before they've eaten.

My idea is to get a very large cardboard box from a moving company, put a layer of pine shavings in the bottom, cut lots of ventilation holes and take them that way. (We don't have any cages.)

I'm assuming they'll be just fine not eating for the eight hour trip, but should we give them water part way through?

Any tips, suggestions, encouragement is appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!

 

[justusnak]

I would suggest....watermelon, cantelope..something like that, gives them the water and sweet sugary energy they need for the stress of a move.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Kitty carriers work good too.

 

[BeckyLa]

Unless you're in the desert and their box will be in the sun, they should be just fine.

 

[BirdBrain]

We recently sent 5 9-10 week old roos on a 3+ hour car ride in banana boxes at 2 per box. That way they did not all crowd up and smother anybody. We got boxes from the local Wal-mart as well as a few extras which we used to patch the tops--banana boxes are open on the top. We cut the sides and used one side per top and taped it on with packaging taping being careful not to cover any of the air holes. We let the birds eat and drink that morning and then loaded them up in the boxes. They were ameanable to sitting in the boxes and having the lids put on. They talked about it a bit and then settled right in. The boxes had heavy paper in the bottoms (what came with the boxes for the bananas) and I put shavings in there as well. We put them in the back seat of the car so they would have the benefit of air-conditioning and off they went. You could try this and as Justusnak said, try putting melons in with them to give them the liquids they need. You might try putting them in an enclosure where they are easy to catch the night before.

Good luck!!

 

[ldanielsanderson]

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. I would never have thought of the melon idea, though I was going to juice up their water with something so they'd fill up.

I figure chickens are transported all the time by big producers and I'll be baby-ing these, so we should all get there in one piece.

Thanks again!

 

[TucsonFrizzled]

Howdy Ya'll ~

When they get to their destination, I suggest giving them gatoraide instead of water. They will be stressed because of the changes and ride and so forth, the gatoraide will help the electrolyte balance.

Please, Let us know how it goes.

 

[barg]

I used to know someone with your username.
DAOC mean anything to you.

 

[Pat]

I too, am fixin' to move my 10 hens a-layin. We are going from west Texas (in July) 1600 miles north to Michigamme, MI. It will take several days as we are also traveling with 3 donkeys, 1 mustang and 1 mule.
I am wondering what the best kind of traveling container would be for this kind of trip. The girls will have to be in the back of the pickup and I don't want them roasted.
I like the idea of watermelons and gatorade. Any other suggestions?
Pat

 

[BirdBrain]

Pat,
What are you going to do about overnights? Where will the birds and your other critters be then? Maybe you can fix a large wire cage using welded wire panels and chicken wire and something for a roof ( tarp?). You can line the bottom with cardboard and then put pine chips on top of that. You can afix a feeder to one of the walls of the cage using wire. For the feeder you might try using a section of gutter or PVC pipe cut in half longwise and capped on both ends. You can try to set up a cup watering system (fresh out of ideas on this) or use water melon the whole trip and put the big waterer in at night (don't want it to spill during the trip). You probably want to put some sort of sheild up on the sides to keep the pine shavings from blowing away as you go down the road. Don't know if any of this has helped, but it might get a few ideas going around in your head about how to make this work.