Chicken Boarding and alternative Holiday care for Chickens
Is chicken boarding a thing? If you have chickens, as much as you love spending time with them, now and again you are possibly hoping to go on holiday. How do you get holiday care for hens when you want to go away? This is a very good question and there are several answers which we have tried to cover below
Is Chicken Boarding the only solution?
Well no, but there are various options for sorting out holiday care for chickens and each has their own issues. Hen boarding is the only one in which you can literally dump and run.
| Solution | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Don’t go on holiday | No issues with care. You don’t get to miss your chickens. | Not so feasible as everyone benefits from a break now and then |
| Chicken boarding | Just hand your chickens over and walk away. | Forward planning as pre-booking is essential. You may have to travel some distance to reach your hen boarding. Adds to the cost of your holiday. Increased infection risk if placements are not well spaced or bio-secure. Cockerel boarding is unlikely. See our recommendations below for approved places. |
| Chicken sitter live in | Chickens are cared for in their own surroundings. No infection risk | Your house might need cleaning from top to bottom to make it presentable. Space must be free to make your sitter comfortable which adds to pre-holiday workload. You will have to tackle that clutter if it exists before their arrival. Food for your sitter may need to included. Home security risk unless you trust your sitter. |
| Chicken sitter visiting | Daily visits to monitor food and water and cleaning done if agreed. Less risk to house security | Might not visit as agreed or may not notice health issues. Always go on recommendations if you can. |
| Leave chickens unattended | Reduced security risk. Less reliance on others. Cheap | Risk of food or water running out. Automatic door may fail. Lots of forward planning and you will need to add failsafes. Extra feeders and drinkers need to set up to make up for losses. |
What alternative is there for holiday care for chickens?
There are some things you can do to make holiday plans easier if you have no external assistance. You will probably need to invest in more equipment. It also requires a coop inside a very secure and fox-proof run however please remember that chicken wire is definitely NOT fox-proof. Fox-proofing is a topic in more detail here. An automatic door opener ensures your chickens are safe each night and it will open them up in the morning. You will need to make sure that food and water are always available.
Issue: How to keep the water flowing
- You can try a nipple drinker which runs from either a large bucket or header tank. It has to have enough capacity to last for the duration of your holiday.
- Bell drinkers supplied by a gravity header tank
- Cup drinkers supplied by a gravity header tank
- All the above can be also fed from the mains to a header tank containing a ballcock. This makes the supply even more automatic
- A beehive style tripod drinker will hold up to 30 litres of water
- Several large but untipping buckets
- Test the duration of the water supply in the weeks beforehand because it must not run dry or get dirty
Issue: How to keep the food flowing
- Large capacity treadle feeder or grandpa feeder to keep vermin out
- Beehive style emperor feeder preferably with a wright feeder attachment rather than the included pan feeder.
- Spring or pan feeder which is fed by a drum or barrel
- Large capacity hanging feeders or several feeders as failsafes.
- Other home-made large capacity and unclogging feeder
- Outside feeders need top hats to keep the food dry and they need to be off the ground if possible. This will minimise spoilage because of slugs and vermin.
- Test the duration of the food supply in the weeks beforehand with the proviso that it MUST stay dry and not run out
Suppliers of chicken boarding
| CHICKEN HOLIDAY CARE AND BOARDING | Contact/Website details |
|---|---|
| If you provide this service and would like to be entered here please use our contact page | Your website or page can be added here |
| Hedgerow Henporium – yes that’s us 🙂 . Covering CH66 and surrounding areas We now provide a boarding service for hens. Based in CH66 near Chester. Our hen boarding service is a home from home where your girlies receive our expert care. Offering boarding was the next logical step for us. We can either do in-house boarding in a 4 or 6 bird coop or we can do a visit to your chickens. If you are close to us, you may prefer daily or regular visits but we do add a mileage cost on top of our regular fee. We calculate mileage for off-site visits based on your distance from CH66 4RB. Bio-security is high priority and ensures your hens remain safe and secure. We charge from £8.50 per coop per day but we have a minimum charge of £30 per booking. Optional health services are also available if you would like us to perform them for you. | Use our contact form to enquire, or book here through our shop page |
| The Mother Hen covering CH61 and surrounding areas. Providing a chicken care and visiting service while you are away or if you just need an extra pair of hands. I am happy to do morning or evening visits which include feeding, watering and keeping on top of cleanliness. Prices will vary a little depending on location and how many daily visits you need. You can be safe in the knowledge that they are being cared for in their own environment and by an experienced chicken keeper. I can also offer chicken boarding care at my home address for up to 6 hens. You can reach me via my Facebook page. | Lucy Byrom Based in Irby on the Wirral https://www.facebook.com/themotherhenservices |
| National Portal for Chicken Hotels. If you cannot find a space in either ours or the Mother Hen above then check out the Betsy website. If you are not in our area then this would be a great place to start your search. | https://www.heybetsy.com |