Why is good help hard to find?

[Rammy]

So, I went out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend and had a neighbor come over to show him what needed done and hiw I wanted it done.
Ducks: clean water buckets at night, fresh water for the morning. Lock ducks up in shed, change watee in heated bucket in the morning so and put feed in feed pan for evening lockup.
Ducks water was filthy, eggs left by fence, heated water bucket water half full and filthy.
Chickens: ck water, fill if necessary self waterer, heated bucketchanged out daily, fresh water.
Chickens heated bucket was almost empty and filthy. It was a quarter full. Its never that low when I change it out daily.
Rabbit: three had no water. Pregnant doe has two waterers, one empty. No pellets in bowls.
I know he came here everyday cause he txtd me and I also can watch my house on remote cameras. Apparently he just did the bare minimum and left.
Guess I cant go out of town anymore.

 

[ValerieJ]

That's really too bad. Not everyone has the same respect for our winged friends as we do. I would certainly not ask that same neighbor to do it again. Were you paying him/her? I pay a neighbor very well when I go out of town and have never had this issue.

 

[Rammy]

That's really too bad. Not everyone has the same respect for our winged friends as we do. I would certainly not ask that same neighbor to do it again. Were you paying him/her? I pay a neighbor very well when I go out of town and have never had this issue.

No. I didnt pay him. He normally gets to keep any eggs, which he also didnt seem to collect while I was gone, because I gathered almost 2 doz this morning. Four eggs were in the covered cat litter box I have on the floor of the coop that I use for the hens who dont want to fly up to the higher nest boxes. I usually never find more than 2 eggs in there.
The girl who normally takes care of my critters was out of town herself or she would of done it. She has chickens, too, and is pickier about her chickens than me.
When I take care of her flock, I do exactly as she wishes because I expect someone to do the same for me.
The neighbor collected the duck eggs but he left them by the backyard gate on the ground.
He wont take care of them again.

 

[CapricornFarm]

People don't want to put forth effort. I had a guy watching my goats once that didn't give them any water! Luckily the person taking care of the chickens noticed and gave them water.

 

[Mimi13]

And this is why I’m never gone overnight, unless my DH or DS will be home to take care of things (still not to my liking) but fed and watered properly.

 

[ValerieJ]

It does make it hard to leave. But, seriously, I insist on paying any neighbor who comes and takes care of my animals and chickens $50/day to come twice and do all the things I would normally do. They want to do it for free as a good neighbor, but I feel paying them makes it a job, and then they take it more seriously. I also write out morning and afternoon instructions. I really don't like to leave at all, but when I do, this is how I handle it.

 

[CapricornFarm]

It does make it hard to leave. But, seriously, I insist on paying any neighbor who comes and takes care of my animals and chickens $50/day to come twice and do all the things I would normally do. They want to do it for free as a good neighbor, but I feel paying them makes it a job, and then they take it more seriously. I also write out morning and afternoon instructions. I really don't like to leave at all, but when I do, this is how I handle it.

Good plan!

 

[Rammy]

It does make it hard to leave. But, seriously, I insist on paying any neighbor who comes and takes care of my animals and chickens $50/day to come twice and do all the things I would normally do. They want to do it for free as a good neighbor, but I feel paying them makes it a job, and then they take it more seriously. I also write out morning and afternoon instructions. I really don't like to leave at all, but when I do, this is how I handle it.

I may do that in the future. I thought about a pet sitting service but most dont do farm animals. Ive also read some horror stories about people finding thier animals dead because no one came to care for them. I like to use people I know and trust. Thats hard to find, too.

 

[nuthatched]

As someone who takes care of people's animals while they're gone, that's disgusting.
No more eggs for him...

 

[Apis mellifera]

Try not to get to mad, just don't ask him again. He doesn't appreciate fresh eggs and your poultry survived the less than perfect care. When my neighbor asked my kid to take care of his chickens and rabbit while he is away my son did a great job. I even helped him do a little clean up and fix and repair around the coop one day. To his surprise he got a nice tip. Good life lesson. There's a lot of super nice people around, mostly at clubs with people who have the same interests as you, volunteer fire dept, churches, etc, Just ask around well before you plan on leaving and of course offer fair payment. Think about what you would expect to get paid to take care of someone's else's livestock.