What do you do when on vacation?????

cmclean

Songster
12 Years
Sep 20, 2011
118
65
216
Pasadena,TX
We have had our 4 chickens since August, and are planning a Christmas vacation. Oh no, WHAT ABOUT THE CHICKENS????!!!!!! What have some of you done when going out of town for as long as a week? I need ideas!!!!!
Thanks!
 
We are also going away over Christmas. I'm fortunate that my adult daughter and her family live close and are not traveling. They will take care of things for us. We also have a veterinarian's teen daughter that babysits for us. She drives too! So we have a backup. We don't have much to care for right now.
 
Isn't it funny that our chickens are really family and must be considered when planning ANYTHING? I do have a next door neighbor, but I am not sure if she will be in town the entire week we plan to be gone. Having her go through the routine with me is a great idea!
The truth is, I am not sure that we will ever go anywhere again!!! This is stressful!!
 
Vacation...vacation...hmm, anyone know what that is? We've never had one in our almost 36 years of marriage so staying here with the chickens is not a problem. I don't trust anyone except maybe a couple of people who don't even live in my state to care for my birds.
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Get a friend, neighbor, or relative to come over every day twice a day to feed and water them. I've used automatic waterers, but they still need the gunck cleaned out. Chickens seem to thrive on routine so I try to get someone that will attempt to folllow my routine. All ours are free range (that's 146) and they know that when I feed them it's time to start jostling for perch position. Sunday we moved one of the large coops up the hill so it's near the other coops making it easier for feeding, but the chickens are so confused. We let them out and down the hill they go. At night we need to physically gather them. The first night we had to gather all 74 of them and carry them to the coop, but last night about a 1/3 of them figured it out. Each day it will get better, but they don't do well with change. I've noticed it usually takes them about 2 weeks to readjust. I would never just leave out extra feed and water as you never know what will happen and having a presence around also helps deter predators and mischief makers.
 
I'll let you know when I can take one...

Seriously, I have a great neighbour who I met because she works at the local Agway and is their "Chicken Lady". She sold me my chicks and has been my mentor for the past 7 months. As fate would have it, she's grossly underemployed and is actually an ornithologist. She will do half-hour visits for me, or overnight stays, wherein she also looks after the cats/dog. It's GREAT, but it gets expensive, even though her rates are extremely reasonable.
 
When it's just my husband and I going out of town, we get either our adult son or daughter to take care of the chickens. The grandkids love coming over to see the chickens and to get eggs out of the nest boxes. If we are all on vacation - which we do at least once a year - we ask a neighbor or a teenager from our church to take care of them. We pay the teenagers a certain amount each day - and we repay the neighbors with eggs or by offering to take care of their animals when they go out of town. Sometimes there are professional "pet sitters" that you can hire who will handle the chickens for you. The issue with chickens is that I prefer that they're checked on twice a day - once in the morning - and once right before dark. It gets complicated but not impossible. Good luck!
 

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