Just wondering what people do if they have to leave town for a few days. What do you do for water and food? Are they okay on their own? If you let them out into a run each day normally, do you leave them inside the hen house? How long do you go for? Any input along these lines would be appreciated. Thanks!
We have left ours with full feeders and waterers when we had a just a few, we now hire a petsitter to come by and check on them. We are up to a couple hundred birds though.
I have livestock as well, and when we go out of town we trade with our neighbors, or pay teenagers who also have livestock to come twice a day to feed and check on the animals. I dont know how I would be sure my chickens would be safely locked in at night any other way, unless I had an automatic door.
good point, your petsitter should know how to care for chickens. We have a pretty good sized farm and it takes "farm people" to look after it.
Quote:Actually, no, lol, not yet. I don't have any immediate plans to either, but I'm sure something will come up *someday* and I'd like to already have a plan.
I have been promising to go interstate to visit my Mum for 3 years. I am finally going in July..But only for two nights...and I have to leave my daughter home to look after all the ducks..No way we can go anywhere for that long together....
Quote:Actually, no, lol, not yet. I don't have any immediate plans to either, but I'm sure something will come up *someday* and I'd like to already have a plan. Never, ever, never make a plan!! They always FAIL! lol
We bought an automatic door, so they would be safe in case some emergency kept us from being at home. That also takes care of the door opening and closing chores if we choose to go away. We also keep the run door closed when we are away, so they can't free range, just to avoid any daytime predator problems. Before we had an automatic door, we either traded house sitting chores with a neighbor or hired our vet tech as a sitter.