Water in the coop overnight?

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AmCo540

AmCo540

In the Brooder
Apr 27, 2015
10
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Just moved my 4 week old Red Star ladies into the coop today. They went berserk over the grass and bugs, exploring every inch, except for the coop. We just went out and put the girls to bed in the coop and shut the door for their first night on their own. We have a heating lamp in the coop to make sure they don't get too cold at night. Like any new chick-mom, now I'm fretting - I don't think they'll get too cold, but what if they get too hot? They have can duck into the nesting boxes to get away from the light, but should I put their chick waterer in the coop so they can drink? (Our new waterer is a 3.5 gallon monster and is outside in the run.)
 
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You should always listen to your intuition. Putting four-week olds in a coop with a heat lamp is not only unnecessary, but may be too warm. And they don't need light at night, either. They will sleep all night with no light, and should be plenty feathered out to need no heat unless it's still around freezing where you live.

And no, water is not necessary in the coop at night. If the chicks are going to be spending a few days in the coop to acclimate to their new home, of course you need food and water during the day.
 
Thanks for the quick response!

We're not freezing, by any means. For example, we'll be in the low 60's tonight - I had my [very understanding and patient] husband wire it with a heat lamp based on the advice from the farm we bought them from.

They've been in the brooding corral in our storage shed with a light 24/7 for about a month. The advice we got was to move them to the coop @ 4 weeks with light 24/7 (they'll have access to the run from sun up to sun down with food and water), and the light @ night only at about 6 weeks. They've gotten a fair amount of feathers in, but they still have patches of fluff - not 100% feathered out.

I guess, worst case, I can check on the mid-evening through my spy-hatch and see if they're cuddling under the light or hiding. I know they're heartier than they were 4 weeks ago - but still nervous that they won't be comfortable.
 
I know how you feel. I have two-week olds and I cater to their every need. They're outside in a heating pad/cave system in night time temps of high 30s. At 50 degrees they're out running all over the place. But yours are used to being under a heat lamp 24/7. You would be wise to wean them off the heat gradually.

But you can use a much smaller wattage than the 250 watt heat lamp. A 100 or even 60 watt bulb would be adequate. Too much heat is always more troublesome than too little. If there's a way to shade the light so it's not going directly at them all night, it would be better for them.

Chicks benefit from having dark at night to establish day/night rhythms.

Next time you raise chicks, consider the heat pad system. Safer and more natural than bright heat lamps.
 
I learned about the heating pad cave after we were a few weeks in - seems like I'm learning everything about a week too late - lol.

Since they're used to heat-lamp only as their version of 'night', I'll probably wean them off that way. I'll check them in another hour or so and see how they're doing. If I can avoid putting water in the coop and risking wet bedding, I'd like to - even if it means fretting over the temperature a bit.
 
You can't go wrong by watching how they behave in relation to the heat lamp. If they seem to be trying to avoid it, I would rustle up a lower wattage bulb. I began hoarding all my old incandescent bulbs when it became so difficult to find them. We chicken folk need those to warm our chicks, darn-nit!
 
We checked on them last night and they were spread out pretty evenly, so we left the light on. It was fun to watch them figure out how to navigate their 'runway' this morning. They did beautifully. We'll have some pop up thunderstorms today, so I'm going to leave their light on in case they want to crawl back into 'bed' and warm up.
 
FWIW, our chicks were out in the coop, no heat, no light by 4 weeks old. This was early April in Ohio, temps anywhere from 85F - 33F. They did fine. They are pretty hardy as long as they have a dry place out of the wind.

ETA: we have water in the coop as well as the run.
 
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