What Do You Do If You Leave Town?

[Wizbop]

We have a super awesome neighbor who loves our chickens and has knowledge/experience w/ previous birds/chickens. I guess we're pretty lucky. The cats get put on lock-down in the house and the dog goes w/ us, usually.

 

[Dogfish]

My feeders hold 50lbs of food and I have 15 gallons of water in their run for 16 chickens, including one waterer filled by rain water. Auto door on the coop, and an extremely secure coop and run with an electric fence. I have a neighbor boy who will check on the birds in exchange for eggs.

There is a separate pen in the run that is left open that the turkey's hang out in, so if one gets left outside, they have a place to stay.

 

[math ace]

I have a few people I call to come and check on the chickens and collect the eggs. They need to check and make sure the waterers haven't got knocked over. We put extra feeders and waters out. All of this works for 4 days. Longer than that and somebody will have to go in the coop and change the waters and feeders. Our next project is to get one of those automatic waterers. That would solve a lot of issues.

I have pot belly pigs too. These girls get fed once a day and can not be put on a timer.

The cat gets locked in the house with lots of food, kitty litter and water.

We don't worry while we are gone because we leave our contact information. Two of the three people have chickens of their own - - - so they have a pretty good idea how to do everything and don't gross out over going in the coop.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I hire a friend of my sons (he's almost 18, and has been taking care of them for years for me); there is also a pair of sisters in the neighborhood that I have in mind as backup caretakers, but I have not used them.

One thing I will say is that you need to know the kid and his/her parents and make sure that between them they are responsible enough for the animals to be taken care of. In our old neighborhood, when we only had cats I tried hiring several kids to feed them when we were gone. In most cases both kids and parents ended up irresponsibly not coming by daily as I requested. It is not that I wasn't planning to pay well, just that they "forgot."

When I was a kid, it was a big deal to be entrusted with taking care of a neighbor's pets while they were gone. Being asked showed that you were a responsible young person, and parents were a backup to remind you if necessary.

 

[jojo54]

Quote:
I know how you feel. I went back home to visit my parents and left my DS here to look after things. The chickens were fine except for Lulu, our lame part-time house chicken. I spend alot of time with her. She is always with me when I work in the yard and I bring her in to visit with me a couple times a day. DS was not so attentive to her and she started to miss me. She just sat by the garage like a lump. I felt bad for her missing her cuddles, etc.

 

[TreeHugger]

I get my mom to stop by & check on everyone once a day. My coop & run is totally enclosed, & the chicken feeders & waterers hold enough for 1 week. My cats have an automatic dog feeder on the back porch that holds 50 lbs of food. My dog visits my parents who live down the road when I'm not at home - shared ownership My parrots are not so easy.

I'm planning on going on a vacation this summer. I've already called & arranged my parrots to be boarded. They are a little to much for my mom to handle & the whole time I'd be worried that she didn't pay attention & let a cat in the house or turned off the air conditioner to save me money. My mother can handle the chickens, cats & dog but I would not enjoy my vacation worrying about the parrots!

 

[Whitewater]

We will be gone for 2 long weekends (4 days) twice in July, once over 4th of July weekend (the shorter time, from Thursday eve to Sunday eve) and once end of July/start of August for Th-late Monday night.

We have a strictly indoor cat, 2 dogs, and now, 3 Black Australorp pullets as of next Tuesday.

Our dogs and cat are old campaigners and don't freak out when we leave -- and we have had friends come and take care of them when we do go away. The same friends are also chicken savvy (we're very lucky!) so I don't anticipate much of an issue with these two trips coming up.

The first time, we're going to lock the chickens in their combo coop/run and leave them with full waterers/feeders (and smaller of the same in their hen house). My mother-in-law may come by if necessary -- our friends will be with us! LOL! We will be taking our dogs with us on that trip. The cat can fend for himself, we leave him on weekends often and he's always fine.

Second journey, we're leaving all the animals at home and having our dog/cat/chicken savvy friends come by daily for the dogs (and the cat, if he wants any attention). They will also check the chicken's food and water, but I don't expect that it will need much attention. The chickens *may*, if they are early birds (LOL!) be laying by end of July, so our friends get to keep any eggs. You never know. The pullets are 14 weeks old right now, and in another 6 weeks a lot can change. And Australorps start laying early, or so I'm told.

We left the dogs and the cat alone for a solid week for our honeymoon last Sept, with the same friends, and it worked out beautifully. Didn't have to scoop the litter box, just fed the dogs and spent time with them, etc. I have no qualms about using the same system for a shorter amount of time-- even adding 3 pullets into the mix.


Whitewater (who specifically only gets pets/livestock that can handle it if I go on vacation!)

 

[Gypsi]

Wow, I hadn't thought about eggs. The chickens don't seem to miss me too much. Most morning they get to free-range the backyard for an hour or so before I leave for work, but not all mornings. I have a home-made auto-feeder good for about 3 days, and I'm getting about that out of the 5 gal waterer I built. Plan on building a 55 gal waterer for outside the run before I leave for a week, with a nipple on 1/2 inch pvc inside the run. That would prevent dumpovers and dirty water nicely. I can build a larger auto-feeder.

Since my birds still aren't laying, I guess taking a trip now would be easier than later. I would leave the chickens in their run, 2 or 3 of my dogs in the yard on an automatic feeder with wading pools of water. The cats stay in the house with a lot of food, water, and multiple litter boxes.

Once the chickens start laying I'd better have a daughter for a pet-sitter. I'd worry about anyone else with my large dogs. One of them bites, and the other thinks he's a 100 pound lap dog.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
The last trip we went on, our thoughts were more occupied by the wreck that we had on the way to our desination.......

Because of that, we decided NOT to take another trip at the end of this month. The idea of going on a trip kinda has negative connections now

I just don't remember worrying about the birds.

But we were only gone for one night, so I fed/watered before I left and when I got back. We are fortunate to not have a huge predator problem so I just left their coops open for a night.
I have an auto waterer connected to the hose, and the feeders will hold them for about 3 days, so we could stay gone a little longer if we wanted.
We took one dog with us, and left the hyper one with my sister so she could play with him. They could also stay in the yard for short trips.
FIL is also willing to come feed them if necessary.

 

[SouthernChick]

I would worry myself sick if I left for a day or more about my birds!

They are my babies! I enjoy my chickens so much and they are so funny to watch. I had a total hip replacement last Feb 8th and my main concern was when could I go to the barn again. I hatched out chicks and kept them in my kitchen, they was the most spoiled little chicks.

I would trust anyone taking care of them.