Most farmers have marked the days off on their calendar with breathless anticipation of forthcoming December holiday. Packing up and leaving home for a few weeks can be a blissfully relaxing yet discretely unnerving time, especially if you have chickens that you are leaving behind. Chickens worship routine, so it’s important that your time away goes as smoothly as possible. There are a number of things you can do to prepare yourself, your chickens and the ‘chicken sitter’ both practically and emotionally before you jet set away on that long awaited holiday.
Find a quality ‘Chicken Sitter’
It is perfectly reasonable to leave your chicken unattended for a long-weekend however if you’re planning on skipping the house rearing activities for more than a four days it’s imperative you organize for someone to look after them, namely, a chicken sitter. A chicken sitter can really be anyone: friends, family, neighbours or a house sitters. Make sure that they have the following qualities before leaving your chickens at their mercy:
- Trustworthiness of your chicken sitter – you will be giving your chicken sitter access to your home, as well as your precious feathered friends, they need to be trustworthy.
- His/her passion in poultry – most people have more success with chicken sitters that are passionate about looking after your chickens. Make sure that they have an invested interest in chickens, other poultry or animals in general, otherwise feeding your flock and tidying their house may simply become a burden.
- Proximity of his/her home – no matter how passionate and trustworthy your chicken sitter may be, if they live hours away it is unlikely they’ll be of much use if something were to go wrong unexpectedly.
Things to do before you leave
It’s imperative that you take care of a few things before you set off on your holiday adventure. Though you won’t be there every step of the way with your chicken sitter, it’s important that you lay down the groundwork for a successful experience. Here are some things you may want to do in advance:
- Buy plenty of extra feed: you don’t want your chicken sitter to have to go out and buy some while you’re away.
- Label everything: though your chicken sitter maybe a trustworthy, passionate neighbour, they may not know the difference between different chicken feed. Label everything to ensure there is no confusion.
- Give your chicken house a big old fashion clean out: it’s simply good manners to do the cleaning so that the chicken sitter will only have to clean things up when it’s entirely necessary.
- Compile a list of numbers for him/her to call if something were to go wrong: this could include the number of the other emergency contacts. As someone famously said “preparation is everything” and that’s true of most things, including the safe care of your flock while you’re away.
Leave a detailed plan
It’s important that you leave your chicken sitter a detailed plan of what you expect them to do while you’re away. Some of the things you may want to include on your chicken sitter list are:
- Write a list of all the chickens in your flock, with descriptions of their breed . Include how much food needs to be left for your chickens each day.
- Leave instructions on how to clean the coop. If you have pull away trays, like in their house it’s important that you let the chicken sitter know.
- Let them know where all the food, feed and equipment is.
- Encourage them to harvest the eggs regularly. If eggs are left too long in their house ,the chickens can develop a bad habit of which feeding on their eggs which is inconvenient.
The more detail you can add to your plan the better. Make sure you spell out what is both general and specific to you. Take nothing for granted and try to provide as much detail as possible.
Things you will need to negotiate
There are a number of things you will need to negotiate with your chicken sitter prior to leaving for your holiday. Though you might have grand expectations about the level of involvement your chicken sitter will want to have with your flock, it’s important that you clarify their level of engagement prior to leaving on your holiday.
- Number of days a week will they come by the house- If the chicken sitter is happy to come every day then they will simply refill the chicken feeder and waterer one day at a time. In the event they only want to come by every three days, or maybe even just once a week, then you may need to secure and extra feeder or waterer so that the chickens have plenty to eat in the meantime.
- If he/she will be happy to clean the chicken house- this can be a sticky point of conversation. Some chicken owners only ever clean their chicken house once a fortnight whereas others like to give it a quick spot clean daily. It’s important for the chickens that their routine remains relatively undisturbed, so it might be best if you can negotiate a cleaning schedule that’s as close to how it would normally be.
- Always offer something as sign of gratitude. You can offer a number of chicken daily .Let your chicken sitter know if you are happy for them to take the eggs. This way they’ll feel both excited to come and see the chicken and it’s also a sign that you are grateful for the wonderful work they’ve been doing.
If you’re looking for some handy accessories that will make your chicken sitters life a little easier, you could always consider nesting boxes which will help keep your eggs safe from your chickens while you’re away.