Transporting chickens can be stressful, but with these tips, it won’t be. Remember your goal – keep your chickens as calm as possible!
As a micro homesteader, the first animals that you can easily care for are chickens. They’re readily available in most areas, you can select a breed that’s tolerant to your climate, and they’re easy to care for. But how do you get the chickens to your micro homestead?
Transporting chickens requires no special equipment or skill. The goal, however, is to keep the stress levels of your birds as low as possible. The best way to do that is to first ensure you already have their new home prepared for them before their arrival. Second, consider investing in something like a wire cage or a dog carrier. And most importantly, make sure they have access to oxygen, either via air holes in a plastic tote or the good ventilation crates provide.
Placing chickens in their new home
When considering how many chickens to buy, your first question should be – how much room will be available to them? The rule of thumb is 3 to 5 square feet of coop space per bird and 4 to 8 square feet of run space per bird. Whether your chickens will have enough room is dependent on a few things – whether they will be confined or not and what breed you selected to grow.
Why is there a difference in run space versus coop space? Food availability, the climate, and how big your bird is are probably the three biggest contributing factors in space. For free-range birds, their only food source is what grass is available to them. Thus, they must have more room to roam. Birds who are kept up (like ours) can get by with less space because they have constant access to food and water. The same idea goes for raising chickens over quail. Chickens need more room simply because they are bigger than quail.
When placing chickens in a new coop, I recommend doing so in warm weather. Chickens can take time to adapt to a new location and will sometimes avoid entering a coop for a few days. That means they’re sleeping outside in the elements. If you get wind, sleet, and snow as we do during the winter, your chickens will need protection and heat. The alternative to this is to place your baby chicks directly into their new coop and keep them in there for a few days. Again, be mindful that they have proper access to food, water, and oxygen.
We bought heavy duty totes and drilled holes in the lids to give our chicks oxygen. Not pretty, but effective!
Since chickens are going to take time to get used to a new environment, I encourage you to have an established place that keeps them safe. If you’re keeping them in a run, consider giving them access to chicken feed. The access to food will resonate with them over time and they’ll be less likely to run off. New surroundings always take some getting used to!
How to transport them
On the big day, you will want a carrier that will properly house the number of birds you’re transporting. And that will look different for baby chicks and adult birds. Baby chicks fresh from a farm supply store will come home in cardboard boxes with a few shavings to collect excrement. Adult birds should be placed in wire cages, dog carriers (I recommend something like this), or chicken crates.
If you’re familiar with industrial chicken farming, you’ve seen chicken crates before. They are flattened cubes with a lip that allows for stacking. In my experience, these are unnecessary for the micro homesteader. But if you’re frequently traveling with chickens, chicken crates are a great option.
Before loading your birds, you want to put down a layer of shavings or a thick layer of straw for the car ride. This will give them something to nestle into and collect excrement for easy cleaning. Chicken crates don’t require this extra step. If you’re loading your chickens into the bed of a pickup truck, I recommend properly securing your crate in the event of sudden stops. If you’re transporting baby chicks in cardboard boxes, placing them on the floorboard in the backseat of your cab is sufficient for the journey home. Do not place baby chicks in cardboard boxes in the bed of a pickup truck.
Helpful tips
The top priority of the day should be the chicken’s health. Sometimes, the stress of the move is too much for the chicken and they end up dying. Other times, they’ll catch an illness from your established flock and that may kill a chicken. Travel can also impact egg production in some adult chickens. I’ve found this to be dependent on breed. My Buff Orpingtons could be transported or deal with a cold snap and not be impacted whatsoever – I may even find an egg that was laid during transport! My Leghorns, though, may not lay for a week. Be on the lookout for chickens returning to their usual routines, because if they don’t, you may need to inspect what’s going on with them.
When transporting long distances, it’s important to remember to supply fresh food and plenty of ventilation to your birds. Stopping periodically to refresh food and water is a must.
I would also encourage you to avoid extreme weather on travel days. If your chickens are traveling in the bed of a pickup truck, there’s only so much rain, thunder, and lightning they can take and not be in duress. If there’s a light sprinkle expected on the day of travel, I wouldn’t worry too much about that causing any poultry stress.
In industrial farming, travel times can sometimes play a part in how successful a move will go. Since chickens struggle to see at night, moving when it’s dark out (either in the evening or very early morning) may be beneficial to the bird. They tend to be calmer. Moving at night may also be a better option for a more aggressive bird.
If you have a more aggressive bird, consider keeping them in their pen so they don’t stress out other birds or potentially injure them.
Bright lights and loud traffic are also reasons moving at night may be a better option for your chickens. Since birds startle easily. Since we want to create as little poultry stress as possible, traveling at night is a great way to keep things calm.
Size of your flock
If you’re moving larger flocks of birds, poultry crates may be a great investment for you. Since they’re stackable, you may be able to fit more in the bed of a pickup truck. Small groups of birds should do fine in a dog carrier. Or even a cat carrier if they’re chicks or pullets that are unable to get through the holes in a crate.
Stick around!
How often do you travel with birds? Since we’re on a micro homestead, I’m unable to farm large quantities of birds so I’m usually only transporting 20 or so at a time. They’re always chicks, so size and large equipment have never been an issue for me.
If you travel with large quantities of birds, I would love to hear from you! Comment on this post and let me know how you do it. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram and get the conversation started over there!
If you’re growing your food, which do you prefer? Egg birds or meat birds? When my husband and I started our micro homestead in 2020, we never thought we would be looking at raising our own meat birds. But here we are! Unfortunately, that project didn’t make the cut for 2023. But I’m hoping we will be able to craft a few chicken tractors this winter and make growing our own chicken a reality in spring 2024! Who is with me?
For more information about caring for chickens, read these great posts!
Raising Chickens for Beginners – Free Printable!
20 Everyday Homemaking Skills We All Need to Learn
Be Still and Know that I Am God Free Downloads
Are you raising chickens? Here are some links to my favorite products!
- This style of waterer works great for chicks
- I recommend this style of feeder for chicks
- A brooder lamp like this one has a clamp and the watts you need to keep those chicks warm!
- Don’t forget the bulbs for your lamp!
- Transporting small birds? This dog carrier makes a great travel solution.
- Mixing up a dust bath? Add diatomaceous earth! It’s the best way to kill pests and get deep in feathers. Since it’s food grade, it’s safe for your birds!
- For injured birds, I recommend a care spray like this one. Keep it on hand!
- Did you know chickens need electrolytes, too? These electrolytes are what we give our birds when there’s a cold snap and they aren’t taking it well. Again – keep these on hand!
- Need a place to put your equipment in the off-season? We use industrial totes like these.
- Cleaning out your coop? Where a mask and protect your respiratory health!
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