Farm Animal Conundrum

[Tarrel]

Devonian, our wood is around 7 miles from the house - around a 15 minute drive. Admittedly we do go there most days (it's now my primary activity, being in the process of decoupling from the economic system), but we set the chickens up so they could be unattended for several days.

They naturally take themselves off to the coop at night, so are mostly in when the door comes down. We have a 6kg feeder which, at 1 kg a day, gives nearly a week. The main limiting factor is water. We have two water dispensers, giving around 3 days of water at the moment. I'm thinking of modyfying one of these so it is fed by a 20 litre jerry can on a stand. The other point is egg collection, but they would still be perfectly usable if left for a few days (I wouldn't sell them in that case though).

3-4 weeks would be seriously pushing it however!

[Devonian]

(2 May 2014, 23:07)Tarrel Wrote: Devonian, our wood is around 7 miles from the house - around a 15 minute drive. Admittedly we do go there most days (it's now my primary activity, being in the process of decoupling from the economic system), but we set the chickens up so they could be unattended for several days.

They naturally take themselves off to the coop at night, so are mostly in when the door comes down. We have a 6kg feeder which, at 1 kg a day, gives nearly a week. The main limiting factor is water. We have two water dispensers, giving around 3 days of water at the moment. I'm thinking of modyfying one of these so it is fed by a 20 litre jerry can on a stand. The other point is egg collection, but they would still be perfectly usable if left for a few days (I wouldn't sell them in that case though).

3-4 weeks would be seriously pushing it however!

Sounds like you have a good setup that works well for you.

I used to have chickens at my previous property, but I wouldn't be happy leaving them away from my property unchecked for extended periods. Still the plan is that in a few years I'll be able to stop work and then your setup could be a very viable option!

[Sunna]

set them free, let them lose in the wild , who you kidding from one fenced off field to what the road where is all this open wild land in the uk.
all i see in rural worcestershire is field after field leading to another field.
the uk is one big field.

[Scythe13]

That's a really good point Sunna. In many places it wouldn't be viable.

Maybe a massed fence destruction session WTSHTF haha

[Sunna]

the only way around it would to open as many gates as you can , every day untill you have a large open space.

[Steve]

In a serious SHTF collapse my guess is that metal field gates and barbed wire would soon be stolen from farms land near urban areas, as the residents attempted to make themselves safe compounds.