So you want to go on a vacation, but you have chickens? You will be able to vacation on the homestead easily by incorporating these few things into your chicken coop. We are now able to travel without a single worry of our poultry.
For a long time, we did not have chickens on our farm…
The one thing that kept me from homesteading was my fear of not being able to travel. Traveling is something that is near and dear to my heart and something I wouldn’t be able to completely sacrifice for my homestead. I can’t remember how many times I had to tell my husband that I didn’t want to further our homestead. This was a huge bummer to not only him, but me as well.
Whenever I finally said yes to adding chickens to our farm, I had one condition. I told my husband we have to be able to travel even if we have a farm. It was almost as if I had thrown a wrench into my husband’s dreams. With a little research and planning, my husband was able to come up with a self-sufficient chicken coop that would allow us to travel and be homesteaders.
Michael and I eagerly incubated chicken eggs and wound up with 14 chicken. These chickens have made their home on our farm. The chickens ranged freely on our property and they were used to doing so. We wanted our chickens to have the same luxuries while we were gone. Michael and I also didn’t want to have to worry about anyone coming to check on them.
At Last, We Finally Felt Secure to Leave Our Homestead to Vacation
With several easy adjustments to our homestead, we were able to schedule our first vacation to the beach. In the beginning of our homesteading journey, we did not travel very often. This is due to not having anyone to watch our home. Now we were able to pack our bags and travel out of state without having to worry about who is going to watch our chickens.
These 3 things are essential to the chicken coop in order to leave your homestead:
1. The Omlet Automatic Chicken Door
This door for our chicken coop changed our life! No more getting up at six o’clock in the morning to let the chickens out…okay wait… I am usually up before the rooster begins to crow, but that doesn’t mean I am walking with joy out to the coop to let them out. The Omlet door opens and closes based on how light or dark it is outside. We have our light set to 5%, so when it reaches that measure, it will open and close. This is just what you need to be self-sufficient on the homestead.
Our chickens adjusted very easily to the Omlet Automatic door. The Omlet door beeps as a reminder to them that it will be closing soon. This has helped us significantly since daylight savings time began. I no longer have to rush home to close the chicken door. Before the Omlet, we had begun to decline some family events because we would be home too late and we worried about our chickens. This is perfect for a multitude of things.
2. Extra Large Feeders / Waterers
We held off buying extra large feeders on our homestead until we went on vacation. Michael installed a 40 lb feeder and water just before we went on vacation. It has been a life saver. Before, we were adding feed to our feeders every other day. This has allowed us to have a full week between filling up our feed. We have this hanging from the rafters in our coop so that the chickens cannot spill them. This is important because it is often a worry for a homesteader who is leaving their chickens for multiple days.
The same goes for the water that we put out for our chickens. We now have more water for our chickens. This means that we do not have to fill up the waterer as often. Whenever we went on our vacation, our chickens still had one-third of the water remaining. This was also a huge bonus for us because our only water faucet at our homestead is three hundred feet away. Every time we would have to fill up our water, we would have to unravel three hundred feet of hose to reach the chicken coop. Now we only have to do this once a week. During the summer, I would recommend emptying the water more frequently if you are not vacationing. With heat, water can grow bacteria.
3. Arlo Security Camera for When You Vacation on the Homestead
This object is definitely optional, but for the helicopter homesteaders like us, we like to keep an eye out on our animals. We have our Arlo cameras placed in various spots on our property to watch over our home and animals. Since we recently got our Omlet Automatic Chicken door, we have placed an Arlo camera in front of it to monitor the chickens and to make sure the door closes properly. This gives us insight to our birds and ensures that they are all in for the night. Our chickens like to free range on our property, so this is helpful in counting all of our chickens as they go into the coop.
Any time a motion is detected, Arlo sends you a notification to your phone and your email. This is perfect while you are away! You don’t have to worry about your homestead and especially your little chickens. We received some of the cutest and funniest videos of our goofy little birds while we were away on vacation. A video was also sent to us whenever the chicken door closed at night and opened each morning.
Things to Note About Vacationing on the Homestead:
We left for vacation during the winter. This was the best time for us to leave our homestead because if our chickens laid any eggs, they would be fine to stay outside during the week that we were gone. During the summer, you do have to worry about the eggs becoming too hot and creating a mess in their nesting boxes. If you travel with your chickens, you might have to have someone come over every few days to check for eggs! Luckily, you can bribe them with taking home the treasures that they find.
Another thing to note is that we purchased a temperature controlled electric plug that is designed to turn on when the temperature is below 32 degrees inside of the coop. Our brooder light turns on whenever the temperature is below 32. The same thing happens for the water heater. These were both essentials to us because we had temperature in the forecast that dipped down to the low 20s.
A Peace of Mind When You Vacation from The Homestead
One thing that is vital to vacationing is a peace of mind. Whenever I am on a vacation, I cannot shut my mind of if there is something to worry about on my homestead. Those three things truly helped me to be at peace during our vacation. I wasn’t in a constant worry about what was happening to our chicken. One thing that I do not like to do is put a burden on anyone to stay at our house to watch our animals. Having these three things helped me to feel secure in leaving our homestead and knowing that I could still keep an eye on it.
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