What do do on vacation - how long can chickens stay in their coop

[CptCluck]

Hello- We don't own any chickens yet, still doing research...

Given a freshly cleaned coop, automatic waterer and feeder, how long can chickens stay in their coop?

Obviously I'm guessing it's not ever recommended, just looking at our options. Sometimes we go places over the weekend and rarely for a whole week and have to figure out how to handle it.

thanks

 

[Uzuri]

Don't go out of town longer than overnight without someone to check in on them. Even with automation, things go wrong.

You can probably stretch to two nights if you have to, but I'd definitely not go longer than that (and that depends on time of year, temperatures, expected weather, etc).

The good news is that it's not too hard to find someone who can handle feeding, watering, and collecting eggs for a week (spotting and heading off problems is another story, but you kind of have to hope those don't happen while you're away, and take steps to prevent what you can).

 

[carrlr]

Assuming your coop is large enough for the amount of birds, I'd say not more than two days/nights before someone checks on them.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

Since I have dogs I have someone come and housesit. They take care of the chickens as well. If I didn't have the dogs, I would just ask my neighbor up the street who has chickens. You might even be able to find someone to swap chicken sitting by finding someone near you on the "where am I, where are you" forum here on BYC.

 

[CptCluck]

We're looking at 4-5 sq. ft per bird. We do have some good friendly, like-minded neighbors, but keeping them will be illegal in our town.

 

[TeamChaos]

Consider adding a predator-proofed outside run or some other way for your chickens to get some variety and still be safe even in your absence.

 

[neverbdone]

With a safe coup and run with plenty of room, I leave my chickens for the weekends when we go camping with the dogs. I make sure they have plenty of water and food. But never more than two nights without someone coming up to water, feed and check on them. If we leave for more than the weekend, I usually get a house sitter.