food and water location

depends of if the door opens to something predator proof, it should be closed before dark every night if it is just open to the yard.

 

My coop was open to the yard before my run, my food and water are in my run, I don't have to run home every night to lock up the chickens (and living in the city I got really strange looks for this). 

 

I don't come home when there is an emergency (hospital/sudden out of town funeral) to a chicken massacre either... 

 

I did that once...

 

I propose (when possible) a secure coop and run, the coop is big enough for those hens and the nest boxes- the run would need to be 40 square feet (and tall enough to get into to clean) 8*5*? or 4*10*? if you have the room.

 

If not look into automatic coop doors, my neighbor built one that works and anyone too dumb to go in on time gets one help inside- after that they are on their own to be safe, he wont risk his smart chickens for the two dumb ones that roost outside- was three one didn't roost high enough.

I water and feed outside as long as possible. Since I free range I have 3 food and water stations. I change the water daily in the summer by bringing my garden hose to the waterers. I have one area in the run for after egg laying, one under a tree in my front lawn and the other station is in the woods where they hang out all day. I have a nice scooper to carry the food.

In the winter I use a homemade wooden feeder that holds 50#'s of feed at a time, hubby cut an area for the tray where they eat and we fill the box area outside the coop. The feeder saves a ton of space. I cut back to one waterer and feeder during the winter, which I put plastic board under the waterer. Last year I used linoleum and it molded underneath.

I prefer the water outside if possible. The feed, I don't mind inside the coop.

If the birds have food without water, you can run into situations like crop bind.

 

If the weather is particularly hot, I'll keep a water feeder hanging inside our coop at night. But most of the time I keep food and water outside as I don't like water soaking my bedding ( I keep my chooks with ducks, who like to snort water and blow it everywhere to clean out their bills ).

 

If you keep them from water and food at night, it's best to give them access to water first before feeding in the morning. I'd vote against feeding indoors at all, as vermin will quickly learn where to find food, and you don't want to be sharing those kinds of bacteria with your birds.

 

Try to get into the habit of always closing your birds in at night. It's just better on the conscience. One massacre is all it takes to learn that lesson though.

 

but it hurts the heart when you are at the deathbed of someone or having your child (etc) and have to call in a favor and hope the person can count to go close in -your- birds. And knowing if you don't or they don't go right away there will be losses. 

 

(one person didn't realize it was a 'right now' request and waited till 10:00PM- needless to say that was a bad day for the chickens- that's why I spent the money on the secure coop-run)

 

Yea, it's really hard sometimes to arrange people to help care for your flock when life emergencies happen. It's even harder to find people who are willing to help who actually know something about chickens and the predator/prey circle of life thing!

 

I swear the fox around here know the exact moment we are not around too. They've learned my dog and I come out in pyjamas and wellies at 4am, so they often wait for when we're not home to come lurking about. We've spent a lot of time figuring out how to keep them out. Ultimately it has resorted in digging fence 2ft into the ground, and putting a 6ft high fence around the run, and we still close them in at dusk. The dog and I still wake up when we hear a fox make its rounds at night too. I love watching the fox play in the fields, but not around my birds!