4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[alet_chicken]

Hi, we are planning to go on holiday soon for about two weeks. We will get a pet sitter to look in on our 9 girls every 2nd day, and also friends who will come in on the inbetween days to collect eggs, etc, so the chickens will be well looked after.

 

The only thing that we can't decide about is whether to leave the girls confined to the run, or to let them free-range in our back garden. We are worried about predators attacking them at night, but on the other hand, they free-range most of the time so may find confinement a bit stressful. (Plus, I have images of the the pet sitter on hands and knees holding off the inevitable chicken crush whenever she opens the run door to refill the feeders...)

 

Could anybody with experience in this matter please give us some advice? It would be great to leave them out, because they love it, BUT safety comes first for us (and we would not be able to sleep at night if we had to worry about the girls!).

 

Let me give you some info about our setup. First of all, we don't have any problems with foxes and rats in our area. We have some regular feline visitors, which our girls can easily see off during the daytime (but I'm not sure what they would do at night...). They would also not be able to escape: our fence manages to contain our two marauding greyhounds, and also keep out various dogs with success. Plus, they've never tried.

 

We have a cube with 5m run on woodchip, and an Eglu with 3m run. I reckon if I remove one of the panels under the Cube, and cable tie the front of the Eglu run (with open door) to it, then our girls will have a 9m^2 run, with about 2.5m^2 being on grass. The run has 2 perches, various peckablocks and other hentertainments to keep them busy.

[Patricia W]

We went away for nearly 3 weeks in June and arranged for neighbours to look after them. One let them out at 7.30 each day and another put them back in the run in the evening.

 

They were fine. But this is the routine we have anyway- the only difference is that it's me who lets them out and puts them away. I let them free range when one was being bullied when they were in the eglu run. I'm sure it would happen again if they had to be confined for any length of time.

 

I have decided that the risk of being foxed is balanced by the freedom they have and love. Everyone has to make their own risk assessment - and I'm sure others will take an opposite view to me. And you need good neighbours!

 

Tricia

[Egluntyne]

I would try to get someone to put them away and let them out at least. They will be very vulnerable at night.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

You sound to me like you're very anxious about leaving them freeranging so would just worry the whole time you were away. Personally I would leave them in their run unless you can get someone to let them out and put them back in. It's only 2 weeks and your plan to join the runs sounds good. Although you say you don't have foxes or rats, that's what lots of people say before they suddenly have a fox attack or see a rat .

 

I left my 3 in a 3m run for 2 weeks last year and they were absolutely fine.

[smanners]

I have decided that the risk of being foxed is balanced by the freedom they have and love. Everyone has to make their own risk assessment

 

Just to let you know we did exactly the same ................no problems for 10 months.

We thought we were fox proof and became complacent.

 

But then one day last week a fox came and in 10 minutes killed 3 of our girls. It also injured 3 more

It came over a 6ft fence and climbed through the flexible netting into the sectioned off area for the girls

Luckily I was in the house and managed to save the rest. Had it happened later we would have lost all of them.

After seeing 3 of my beloved hens lying dead around the garden, all the feathers and the shock and horror of the others who witnessed the massacre I have changed my mind and will only allow supervised free ranging now on.

The fox has been back 4 times since and is not deterred.

I agree you have to weigh up your own situation but now I can't afford to take the risk.

[Olly]

So sorry to hear of your experience, smanners - I was going to say exactly the same thing.

 

Whenever I hear the words 'we don't have a fox problem' I want to add 'yet'. You are lucky if you KNOW there is a fox around - for many people the first time they realise there is a fox, is when their chooks are taken.

 

Unless you live on the Isle of Man, which I believe is fox-free, there will be foxes in your area and they will know that you have chickens - they are far from stupid. I don't let my chickens free range at all unless I am in the garden to supervise. It's a matter of personal choice but I think if you are going to be away and so "Ooops, word censored!"ody will be around during the day and the house will be quiet, then you are at a high risk of a fox taking a chance, even though you have never seen one.

 

Your chickens will be fine in the run for a couple of weeks, and if your pet-feeding friend chucks some treats down the far end of the run, she'll have plenty of time to open the door and refill the feeders.

[teri]

i would't let them free range unless someone can put them away for you. i used to work on an urban farm and i left early, leaving the boss to lock the animals away, unfortunatley he forgot and i arrived the following day to find 7 rabbits, 5 ducks 8 hens and 4 guinea pigs all dead. only one duck survived more by chance than anything else because the fox had tried juding by the bite marks and bruising to her neck. Foxes will kill everything so not worth the risk.

they will be fine in their run and you can spoil them rotten when you get back

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Do you have a second set of food bowls/grubs & glugs so your friends just have to swap the full for the empty feeders & water rather than grapple with filling them when the chooks are trying to escape (or being bribed at the other end of the run!)

 

I'd go with the "shut them in unless watched" approach, maybe a friend would be happy to sit with a cup of tea & watch them for half an hour every/every other evening/occasionally whilst you are away?

 

Sha x

[chelsea]

I agree with most of the replies. I would leave them nice and safe in the run.

 

Is there anyone you can ask who can spare an hour during the day where they can come and sit in your garden whilst the hens free range for an hour to stretch their legs?

[legend21]

Mine free range all the time but are locked up at night, I know if I left them in the run at least one of them would be bullied, I would pay someone to lock them up at night and let them free range all day

 

Enjoy your holiday whatever you decide

 

[Hen Watch]

My lot free range a lot. But when it comes to my holiday, they spend a week in the run. I think for peace of mind so you don't worry whilst you are away, it might be the best option.

 

I can see your point about chicken sitters who are not used to chooks fighting to keep them contained at feed replenishement time. But spare feeders are a good idea if you can get some in time. I don't have as many chooks as you so maybe I'm offering a too simplistic answer, but for my 4 I have 2 grubs and 2 glugs. My chicken sitter uses a hosepipe through the run bars to top up the water daily. The grub feeders are filled to the brim with pellets and they seem to last 3/4 days. So for a week's holiday my sitter only has to top up feed twice and collect eggs daily. She does check them once a day and top up the water.

 

If my sitter does have time to let my lot free range, then she can usually get them all back in the run with a handful of corn. But I am happy if she prefers not to let them out. They never seem to suffer at all when I go away and seem unfazed by it even though it differs to their normal routine.

[alet_chicken]

Thanks all for the helpful replies! You have convinced me that it is best to keep our lot in the run, with plenty of things to keep them busy while we are away. I think also we will arrange for the sitter to come once while we are still here so that I can instruct her in the art of Distracting Chickens, Resistance to Manipulation By Chickens, and (if she is keen on this) Luring Chickens Back Into The Run.

 

Thanks for the great idea of exchanging rather than refilling spare feeders! After many introductions, I have three pairs of feeders and drinkers between the 9 chickens, so actually already have a spare feeder for this purpose, but it simply didn't occur to me.

 

We top drinkers up through the bars too - it's just soo much easier. Flying debri from digging chickens make them quite mucky though, so once a week I open the run to remove all the drinkers and give them a good scrub. I will keep one near the door so that the sitter can keep it (resonably) clean: guessing by the mucky puddles that they usually choose to drink from, I reckon they should be fine for the two weeks that we are away.

 

My flock are (reasonably) well behaved and well settled in their pecking order. They don't have a fixed routine of being let out, and some days we don't let them out at all, and they seem to be fine. At the moment I have only two worries regarding their behaviour. One is that I suspect there is a feather eater in the coop. We are trying to sort out at the moment with anti-peck spray (but just yesterday I found Mabel helpfully and delicately picking anti-peck spray off Audrey ); however I think this happens at night so being cooped up during the day shouldn't make a great difference.

 

The more serious worry is that Annie goes broody at the drop of a hat (never mind that the whole point of being a leghorn is that she *shouldn't*, it's already happened twice this year and it looks like she's thinking about it again ), and when she (and her large and rather lively aura) occupies the nest box in the Cube this causes trouble for some of the shy girls lower in the pecking order. I guess stringing the runs together and leaving the nest box in the Eglu open should take care of that.

 

I'm afraid it's just too expensive for us to get somebody to let them out and shut them in every night, and I'm not sure I want to put friends, keen as they are, through the ordeal of persuading some of our more strong-willed girls back into the run (most of them fall for the shaking-corn-in-a-pot every single time, but sometimes the leghorns (and Mildred) can be difficult, and they're impossible to catch).

[bexbex]

I have 2 rabbits who I let free range when we're in. I leave them out the for hour when I go to pick my son up from school but if we're out the the day I put them away.

When we're on holiday my dad looks after them but he doesn't let them out.

I think if anythign happened to them when I was away and he was looking after them he'd blame himself so for the week or 2 we're away I'd rather they were safe in their hutch, then I know when we're back they'll have free range again.

I'm sure when I let the chickens out after they've settled in I'll be the same.

Becki

x

[Willow]

We have a wonderful neighbour who looks after all our pets whilst we are away. We leave them in the run. We've left it to him to decide when he is confident enough to let them free range and get them back in and he does now let them out for supervised free ranging when he comes back from work.

 

BTW Do tell any chicken sitters not to feed them too much corn/treats when they let them out or there'll have nothing appealing enough to lure them back into the run. Our neighbours found that out for themselves the first time they let them free range

[*mummy_hen*]

Personally i could never go away knowing my girls weren't completely safe from predators.

 

Could you not get somebody to let them out for a period each day? Even if this was only for an hour each day surely it would be better that they came out a little but were safe the rest of the time than the chance you could come back to sad news!