Inside or Outside

During the warm months I would say outside if you get up at the crack of dawn and open their coop anyway.  Mine wake up in the morning and head straight to eat first.  If I don't they make lots of noise to let us know they are hungry.  If I want to sleep in (weekends) I do move the food and water inside at night when I close up the coop.

No they don't need them over night.  If you have the room, then inside.  I always think of what ifs, like if I over sleep or if I need to be someplace, or...  Of course if you never shut them in it doesn't matter.

Our four ladies moved outdoors 4 nights ago. They won't use the ladder in or out of their coop. We have to move them each morning outside and then force them into the coop at night. So, we have been moving the water and food wherever they go. We had left the feed and water in the coop yesterday hoping that if they got hungry or thirsty enough they would have to learn how to use the ladder. That didn't work. So, good question, I had the same one. Perhaps we have 2 sets, one for inside and one for outside?

I leave mine outside unless it's really nasty and then I hang it under the table so no one can roost on it and turn it over.  It took my girls about a week or so to finally figure out how to walk up their ramp but now when it starts to get dark you can see the processional and by 7:30 everyone is inside ready to go to sleep.  It also took my older ones a while to figure where the coop was and  how to use their new roost poles when we moved them into their coop but now they are all up by 6ish except for a few boys and they tend to like to linger and watch over the younger girls in their pen.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by ekofke201 

Where does everyone keep their feeders and waterers?  Do they really need access to them overnight when they are locked in the coop?  

When they wake up. but they should survive a few days without food. As long as you let them out at some time that day or the next day, they should run out and find a bug they been seeing out of their reach and survive.

Chickens can't see at night. and they value their sleep time, it's very important to them. I fed some hens during the night using a flashlight. always, there is some hens that refuse to eat cuz they just wanna sleep.