Who watches your chickens on vacation?

[chickenlickin8]

I have been scared to take a REAL vacation because of the chickens and pets and who would take care of them. I search the web for petsitters and didn't want a stranger caring for my animals. So, we decided to take a little 3 day trip up to the Smokey Mountains and asked DH's parents to watch our chickens, cats and fish tank. They have cats themselves. I felt confident it would be ok and gave them the list of what to do when and house alarm instructions...you have 60 seconds to turn on or off!

The first morning of our absense, I get a 7AM call.........
MIL - "Dear, are you awake? I have a bit of a problem I hit the RED button on the alarm by accident and the alarm is going off like crazy, what's your password?".

Me - what happened?

MIL - "Everything is fine, no worries". ADT is on the other line asking for the password or they will send the police."

Later that day, another call....

MIL - "Dear, we were feeding the chickens and one of them got out. What do we do?".

Me - catch it! Open the door to the coop and get some treats and she will run back in. I hear a chicken screaming in the backgroud as they try to get her back in.

MIL - Out of breath....."Ok, it worked". "Enjoy your vacation, we should be fine".


I'm not sure we are going on a trip anytime soon again...LOL!

 

[chicmom]

hehehe Sounds like things are going well--Very similar to when I let my 19 year old step daughter watch my house while we were away.......

 

[GardenGal]

Whew! Those vacations are exhausting! My parents and sister live nearby and will kindly come over and check on our crew. I always feel guilty about asking them though, and I always leave them with a list as long as a small novel regarding what to do and how to feed them - even though they already know what to do

 

[LittleSticks]

I hear you on this subject! I am considering a vacation while leaving my husband alone with the dogs and chooks. While I plan to write long, detailed instructions about everything the first, most important instruction will be

In case of escape shake the mealworm can and yell "chickchickchickchick!"

 

[speedy2020]

Build yourself a treader feeder and nipple water system. The only you need is someone pickup the egg.

 

[chickenlickin8]

I hear you on this subject! I am considering a vacation while leaving my husband alone with the dogs and chooks. While I plan to write long, detailed instructions about everything the first, most important instruction will be

In case of escape shake the mealworm can and yell "chickchickchickchick!"

I should have use that trick. Why aren't there professional chicken sitters in the yellow pages?