bigmommasally Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Hi All Does anyone have any experience of coping with the chickens and other pets during a house move. The chickens have a cube and large walk in run, bunny has a very large two storey hutch and walk in run and we also have 2 tortoise to pack up and move. The walk in runs will need to be dismantled prior to moving day, so the only thing I can think of doing is to put the chickens and the bunny into a boarding place for a few days before and after the move. How do other people manage with their pets and moving house? Also has anyone tried dismantling a Avaries 4 U walk in run before? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Good luck with the move! I've not moved with pets but I'd be inclined to see if you can 'board' your pets temporarily with a friend around moving day. There is a thread somewhere on the omlet forum with chicken sitters so you may be able to sort your chickens (and possibly the rabbit) that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluekarin Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I know Mostin has done this recently. Not sure if she is here that often anymore though, but maybe a pm to her? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I had to move my avaries4u run to another part of the garden and to be honest it didn't do well. To be fair we only partly dismantled it so it was probably our fault. I imagine if it was taken apart properly then it would be ok. I am moving this year our plan is to have one volunteer (thanks BIL) with a separate van to dismantle transport and rebuild run. With the chickens they will either be put into a shed or garage for day or if a nice day we plonk FIL in the new garden with them netting off an area for them. We are hoping that plenty of corn, brocccoli and the novelty of new flowerbeds to muller will keep them happy for the day. Plan 2 is to leave them with my friend for a couple of days In a way we hope our buyers want to keep the chicken run so we can get a new one and start from scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaT Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I moved about 18 months ago with 6 chickens and two WIRs. I dismantled the runs, 1 wooden and 1 omlet, a day or two before hand and let the girls free range. I'm lucky that I have a classic and a go which meant that I could diamantle the cube the night before moving and they still had somewhere to sleep. The hardest bit was catching them again in the morning to put them in a cage! Once at my new place I used the small coops and let them free range until I had time to put everything back together again. If you don't need to dismantle your cube to move you should be able to do something similar. Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitfluff Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Yes! About a month ago and I'm still recovering. It was logistically tricky as I could have done with the walk in run at both places at the same time as I didn't have much space for a temporary run while I dismantled it. I reckon in the end I spent 3 times as much time moving the chickens as I did myself what with dismantling, making a new base and then remantling the run. Fortunately I had an overlap with the property so had a couple of weeks to sort it. My run isn't Aviaries 4 U but similar in that it was made of 6'x3' panels screwed together. A good electric screwdriver and one of those impact screwdrivers that you bash on the end with a hammer are useful as I had quite a few screws that refused to budge without persuasion and they slow everything down. Also, work out how long you think it will take to dismantle and rebuild, then double it then add a day and you'll be somewhere close. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmommasally Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 Thanks everyone for your stories and good wishes. I was hoping someone would come back and say their Avaries 4 u run dismantled easily and the move was a doddle Oh well back to our original plan of a chicken hotel I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 I set up new runs and coops for the chickens at the new house a few weeks before the move. The chickens were moved at night. I then returned to dismantle and move some of the original coops and runs. Some were converted sheds which I left in place. So we had spare coops and runs which we then filled with new birds! Next time the coops and runs were dismantled and moved with the chickens in stages. Basically they were caged at night and loaded, then their coops and runs dismantled and loaded into a trailer. A drive through the night and at the other end the coops and runs were assembled before dawn. Then the chickens went into them. It can be done but it is very hard work indeed. Guess the approach depends on the distance you are moving them and if you have coops and runs you could borrow or build something temporary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickabee Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Where are you in essex bigmommasally? How many chooks ? How many rabbits? I may be able to help. If not, have you tried smilers farm. I'm in brentwood BTW . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Moved 2 cats. 2 rabbits and a tank of fish. But only moving across Mill Hill. Fish were the most difficult. Took out 1/2 water, wrapped tank in bubble wrap and put in cardboard box and put in back of car and drove verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slowly. They all survived and no thats not the way to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaKiw1 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 This will be no help/consolation to you I'm afraid but moving an Omlet WIR is very straightforward! Didn't even have to completely dismantle it - just enough so that the panels could be moved flat and it was reassembled easily on the new site. We had an Eglu with the original 2m run still so we just squeezed that, plus the chooks in a cat basket, with us in the car and plonked that on the grass at the new house on for the moving day itself. A BIG advantage of the Omlet WIR is it's ease of re-locating think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmommasally Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 Where are you in essex bigmommasally? How many chooks ? How many rabbits? I may be able to help. If not, have you tried smilers farm. I'm in brentwood BTW . Thanks so much for the very kind offer of help Chickabee. I am in South Woodham Ferrers but hoping to move further out on the Dengie Peninsula, so probably a bit too far from Brentwood, but I am very touched by your thoughtfulness. We are coming up with a plan to get the old Cube run out of storage and use that whilst we dismantle the walk in run, the owners of the house we are planning to buy are a very nice couple, so we may be able to persuade them to let us move the WIR to their house in the week prior to the move. We then have a spare Eglu which I am hoping I can put the bunny in whilst we dismantle his massive house and run. As an aside I had a look in the Avaries 4 u site in case they had tips for dismantling and was sad to see they ceased trading earlier this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyhole kate Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Mentioned this post to DH always very practical he suggested that if you find the WIR impossible to unscrew simply hacksaw through the screw and re screw in different place when re assembling dip your screws in Vaseline before screwing up as this makes them easier to remove at a later date Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckfest Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 We moved a month ago, and did it by moving the girls to a local hen holiday home the week before move day which gave us plenty of time to dismantle the Cube and run, powerwash it all and leave everything de-chickened for the new people. We then collected them at the end of our first week so we were able to concentrate on getting ourselves and their new home organised beforehand. Would recommend doing it that way, it was well worth the money, and we had enough stress to cope with, without worrying about their accommodation as well. Also when our new house didn't complete until 24 hours after we had sold our old house, we (and the dog) were able to stay with friends, don't think we could have imposed the girls on them as well though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Leia Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 22 years ago was the last time we moved - a distance of 50 miles. Our two rabbits were simply loaded into the back of the wagon in their very large hutch. Last on, first off. No problem. Of course, a lot would depend on how far you are going or even whether removal companies would do that sort of thing now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redcharlie43 Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 We will have to move out of our house for 6 months in the next few months and I was trying to decide whether to move the chickens with us or leave then where they are with daily visits (We will only move a few miles away hopefully.). Reading everyones replies I think I will leave then where they are as moving the whole set up twice in 6 months sounds more of a nightmare! I know that if I ever have to move completely that I can leave then with Surrey Poultry for a few days for a bit of a holiday whilst I get sorted. Is there anywhere like that near you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
