Been kindly directed here after asking some questions in chat...

[BattyKoda]

...about keeping chickens which I have found the answers to on here and on links provided, so thank you!

Just have one more question.... what do you do if you go away? Do you need someone to see to them daily, can you get chicken 'sitters', how does it work?

We have not been away yet since getting our chickens, but we do have a summer holiday booked. We are going to hire a professional house sitter because we also have a dog, so it will save us having to make arrangements for him too.

For a weekend away, we will get the teenagers next door to come and collect the eggs and check on the birds food. They do not need too much attention every day.

Our cleaner is going to come and do ours this time but tbh I had several offers of help as soon as I mentioned we were getting them!
It helps that they don't need someone to come every day as the Eglu run is foxproof. Also the eggs are a bit of a draw.

I would get someone to come every day to ensure the hens have food and water and to collect the eggs - leaving the eggs can mean a hen might decide to go broody, or an egg could get broken, then they'd eat it and that gives them a taste for eggs and can develop into a bad habit.

Or rats could discover the eggs

some one to pop round once daily should be enough. chickens dont need human compay to be happy. ours are only interested in us if we have food or are gardening (which produces bugs and worms for them).

only went away in this country: for more than 2 days we took them with us (cat carrier).
they lived in ex's dad's greenhouse in a cardboard box for a week. they loved it.
(it was christmas, so not cruel temp wise!)