I actually have been thinking about backyard chickens. Too much travel planned right now, but mebbe in the spring.
Discussion
Definitely wait until spring to get chicks. A small flock of 3 or 4 is good enough for the suburbs. I recommend deep litter if you're not going to get a mobile coop, then you get the benefit of composting their bedding. If you're in a cold climate make sure you have a way to do winter water or build their run close enough to the house to run a simple tank heater.
Also, most store bought coops are too air tight, chickens can generally keep themselves warm enough, and even a 3 sided coop (blocking prevailing winds) is better than airtight. You don't want drafts, but need ventilation!
Thanks!
I would definitely build my own coop; that would be a big part of the initial fun for me.
Chicago suburbs so def have winters to plan around.
I would probably want to run power to it to have a webcam in there, maybe a programmable door. Would also simplify preventing water from freezing. It is cool that some basic shelter plus their feathers are enough for them to survive in the cold.
Yeah, here in Mo, most people with south facing coops blocking our north prevailing winds do better than air tight coops. Running power would be clutch, the water heaters are usually just little metal stands that keep the water container you set above it from freezing. Also, tractor supply is a shit coin so avoid most of their products, metal stuff beats plastic in this application
How long do you think I could be away from home if there's no one around to help out?
And separate from that, I do have helpful neighbors, but not sure how willing they'll be to really get in there while I'm on a trip. How big of an ask would it be if I'll be gone for a couple of weeks? Meaning: how much effort / unpleasantness and how often?
A week is doable if you don't have a lot of predators and can keep the door open, otherwise daily door opening. If you get that figured out, then weekly water and feed is easy to establish, can even go longer with trash can/55 gallon drums for feed and water. If you do those, then it's just eggs which you can collect when you're back
There's definitely a fox that shows up from time to time in the backyard. That's the only daytime concern. Later night visits from neighborhood cat (maybe a threat to chickens?), skunks (no), opossum (no). Raccoons (?), too, but haven't seen any in a while.
Sounds like for longer trips I'd hopefully recruit a more willing / outdoorsy neighbor for at least a weekly check in and all the free eggs they care to take!