I'm hoping to get a coop built this spring and get a few chickens. My question is...can you leave home for a few days if you have to...will they be ok? I don't know anyone here because I just moved here 3 1/2 months ago, so I can't ask anyone to help me out. If this wouldn't work out, I can't get any. My parents, kids, grandkids are all 200 miles away and I like to visit now and then for about 3 days. Thanks
I feed and water the chickens once per week. I only have 6 and it seems to be adequate in the winter and spring. In the summer I add waterers. I do have to let them out every morning into the run because the run is not predator proof so a racoon can climb over and get into the coop if I don't close the coop door. If I had a roof on the run then I could leave them all week. Chickens are definately easier to deal with than my own indoor cats.
"Courage dosen't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying: I will try again tomorrow."
I agree...find someone! Don't give up having chickens. I wouldn't recomend NOT checking on them each day at least once though. I feed mine daily and gather eggs twice a day and in summer fill waters twice. I don't have the big giant waterer or feeder. We have a mouse problem out there and the big feeder is really asking for the food to get yucky so I feed just what they need for the day as well as scratch feed and kitchen scraps daily. Chickens are so easy to care for. I am SURE you could find someone to just check on them daily if you were gone. They are so worth it!!!
Thanks ladies...I really do want them, I don't know what it is about chickens, but I've always wanted them (even though I've been attacked twice by nasty roosters). Jim is coming over tonight, I think I'll just happen to have the book out with the building plans for a coop...think he'll get the hint?
I love to hear a rooster crow, but I know they can be a big pain, so I wasn't planning to get one. How old do the chicks have to be to tell male from female? I heard it's hard to tell.