How long can you be gone for?

A couple of weeks ago, I put my back out. Luckily, my husband was home and was able to do my chicken chores and help out more around the house until I was back on my feet, but it was a good wake up call and got me thinking.

So, how long can you be gone/incapacitated without negative effects to your critters?

My number is a week. A week until the water runs dry. Feeders will last a month or more.

In cold weather, obviously, it would be less, as someone needs to check to be sure waters aren't freezing and that the chickens are in good shape. In fair weather, though, I could easily leave them for a week with no negative effects to them - just a lot of wasted eggs.

I have been extra diligent in keeping feed and water topped up since my little wake up call, and also extra careful to.alwsys have my cell phone within reach. Just in case.

This is a sobering thought.

Here, we would be in serious trouble in one day. If I were not physically able to get out there to ducks/geese/chickens/horses, they are out of feed and water every single day. As it is when we leave the house we count the HOURS that we are gone!

This problem might be lessened if we know in advance that we are going to be gone, but still, no overnight trips allowed at this point. But a sudden problem in life will see hungry, thirsty critters here in one day.

If I leave the farm, everyone is alright for about 40 hours. If I am sick I can give instructions to Doug indefinitely, but he won't like it. If we were both could not get to the farm I have a friend and daughter who I could call.

Someone needs to be home every day here, your folks took care of our critters when I had to go in With Lindsay to deliver the baby last March;) in the summer we can go for up to a week as far as livestock, but still need a dogsitter. We have three dogs, some bigger then others. The cats are self sufficcient or at least they should be, lol. I have been trying to buy a helper on kijiji. I dont want to hire a helper, because you cannot have them 24/7 and they want benefits etc, so instead I want to purchase one and will pay up to 40 dollars a year salary and off course will provide hay and water for feed. That way it is not slave labor either, because it is a paid job. Maybe I should post a wanted add, see what happens?

There have been days where I can't do the birds. Thankfully, Bruce is there to help. If we are not available, they can go for a few days before food and water runs out. Thankfully, I finally have someone I can rely on in case of an extreme emergency. It has taken us a long time to find someone to be our birds godparents. I hope I never have an emergency where I would need to call them but at least I have peace of mind now if I do.

A 1/2 day here, atleast until I move.  Although my chickens are in predator resistant pens, they are truly not protected till locked up at night and the doors closed.  Some are so darn friendly and curious they come running out when they hear anything, even after dark, and if it's a coon they are done.  I've lost so many this year, after dark - nothing worse than a shredded carcass still warm and inside the run with the head torn off, feathers plucked, and tear-able chunks missing.  So I'm always worried the nights a critter sitter can't make it till I get home after work at midnight.  

And I feed/water every day - so even if I wasn't worried about the eating of chickens issue, I would need them fed/watered. 

And then there are the dogs and cats - so here 1/2 day would be devastating and grey hair worthy.

Piet, do you have responsible children or teens living nearby?

Schipperkesue wrote:Piet, do you have responsible children or teens living nearby?

yes there are some, we are going to Holland in April and will probably get another couple (good friends of ours) to live in the house for ten days.

Piet wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:Piet, do you have responsible children or teens living nearby?

yes there are some, we are going to Holland in April and will probably get another couple (good friends of ours) to live in the house for ten days.

I have spent a few years 'developing' my young neighbours into animal caregivers. We are a little remote and there are few opportunities for youngsters to make any money so they are pretty eager.

Schipperkesue wrote:

Piet wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:Piet, do you have responsible children or teens living nearby?

yes there are some, we are going to Holland in April and will probably get another couple (good friends of ours) to live in the house for ten days.

I have spent a few years 'developing' my young neighbours into animal caregivers.  We are a little remote and there are few opportunities for youngsters to make any money so they are pretty eager.

You are lucky you have eager youngsters nearby!!!  That's a hard gift to find.

On this note...HOrse Daughter was to go-to girl up here for many years for all the neighbours who had critters. Not only did she look after horses, dogs and hamsters, but when horses were running around the neighbourhood, our house got the first call and Horse Daughter fetched many out-law horses over the years. THe neighbours were sad to see her move away, as there goes good, reliable help.

Good help is hard to find. I find it's one thing to hire someone who can just bring food and water. But it's another thing to find someone who can recognize a problem and know what appropriate actions to take to deal with it. Like call a farrier or vet or what have you, if that's what's required.

I need to think this one through, I have no back up plan.

I'm guessing about 10 to 12 hours would be the limit around here. It is almost impossible to get away... 8 horses (some with very special needs and feeding requirements) including a stallion. The 4 dogs need to be let out and the chickens...oh the chickens! We are very blessed to all work different shifts. On an average day the place is unoccupied (well by humans that is) for 4 hours. I have an elderly neighbour that keeps an eye on things from her kitchen window for me and calls me at work if there is anything wrong. As for the thought of a family holiday...HA! That's never going to happen...... sigh

12 hours, if, and only if, I have just milked. No one else around here to do it.
If I was really stuck, I might be able to pay someone to come, but it would be short term.
When we go away, which is rare, I dry up the goats and board them at a friends.
He drops in and checks the chicken's water and feeders. This is impossible in the winter, too much snow and everything freezes too fast.
Even when walking is agony (my back goes out), or I am barely able to stand upright (extreme sickness) I force myself to go and tend the animals.
You have reminded me I plan to train the boy to all the chores. Guess today is as good a day to start as any...

We can go overnight this time of year if I am very organised. In the summer we could get away with 5 days with my animals, but only 3 really because of the dogs. We find that gives us enough freedom for right now.

Once we put in our bigger water system we could probably go about a week? With a visit every couple days from our family to put eggs away into the barn fridge (once we get a barn fridge).

With advance planning we can leave for an overnight trip, but that is the max. If we are going away for longer than that, we hire a farm sitter. We were really picky when choosing someone too, and it is sure nice to have someone reliable now.

HOrses screw up everything..well so do dogs. I have a hard time trusting people due to a few housesitter screw ups. Some young people have an earfull from me when we return about various things. Echo has heard my rants. They are not good. Seems every time we get a reliable person they move away or something..ahhh!!

fuzzylittlefriend wrote:HOrses screw up everything..well so do dogs.  I have a hard time trusting people due to a few housesitter screw ups.  Some young people have an earfull from me when we return about various things.  Echo has heard my rants.  They are not good.  Seems every time we get a reliable person they move away or something..ahhh!!

I hear you.  People want to spoil my dogs - a big no-no when I have very powerful dogs - I WANT them to listen, not do what they want.  And my chicken set up is a bit of work but doesn't take that long.  And even something as simple as feeding the cats at the end of the day (so they don't run out the door at night), and not over feeding them - I swear my cats gain 10 lbs when I'm away.

I posted a "helper wanted" ad on our local fb page - 4 people interested me.  I gave 3 a try...one wanted to do things her way (  ), one didn't really get it and was taking hours doing 1 hour long jobs, and the other that I was REALLY excited about moved.  Ugg.  Back to 'tradsies' with a friend - she lets out/feeds/waters or puts critters in at night (depending on my shift) and I babysit her kids for her graveyard shift, but her hours will be changing in January and we won't be able to do tradsies most days anymore - I was hoping to have a new person lined up already.  I lost 15? chickens this year to helper mess ups this year - one helper was having her kids do the work, and they did things like lock the chickens OUT of the house (and racoons ate them), and left a house door open one night (and racoons ate them).    I would LOVE to find a person who I can hire daily, so then I can trust them when I'm away too. I guess I'll have to try again.  And at the new place I won't have to worry so much about the racoons anymore with the electrified perimeter - I'm so excited about that.  I start moving chickens over this week.

Twenty-four hours at most.

I have a reliable 4H member that I get to come housesit. But don't like leaving for more than 4 sleeps even then. Hard to leave someone in charge when it's this cold! I personally feel bad. Will be hard when she goes off to college next fall

In Alberta we had a great farmsitter could go for weeks with no problems. We have struggled here to find someone here in our new home province but this year we got lucky and found a couple, that lives close and have no birds themselves(one of my key requirements) They have looked after my birds for up to 2 weeks and do a great job. We are going on a 6 week holiday this coming year and I know my birds will be in great hands.
I pay them very well and they in turn are invested in my birds. They also know we are only a phone call away and I leave other close contacts should they have any problems. So I feel like we have hit the Jackpot!!

Heather

I find it isnt the feeding and watering that keep us from traveling, but the milking. No one to milk. DH does most the milking though. As for the chickens, I can go three days in the winter, a week in the summer. Goats, if not milking, it is three days. Horses and beef cows, well, two weeks. My dog goes everywhere with me usually, so she isnt an issue. Pigs, three days like the chickens.