Do hens eat and drink at night?

[konachicks]

aloha,
I'm trying to figure out the best feeding/watering containers for our smaller coop. While researching space saving ideas, it got me thinking...do they eat and drink at night?
My girls free range during the day. I have their coop open so they can come and go and eat/drink as they please but was wondering if they HAVE to have it in the coop at night?

 

[KuroKitsune]

my girls never come out during the night...my ducks will if i leave the coop door open but the chickens wont...i close the coop doors up every night now and their fine specialy since they never got up before anyway....so i pick up their feeder and bring it inside. their water stays in the run but the feeeder only gouse back out at dawn when i open the coop up and let them out for the day

 

[Mallory8502]

I have a small coop as well. Chickens don't eat or drink after dark once they have gone to roost so there is really no reason to keep food or water in there.

 

[Den in Penn]

True they don't eat or drink at night while they sleep. But there is a reason to keep some in the coop... the days you don't get up when they do and then they have to wait for you. If you are one to get up with the birds or don't light the coop in the AM, your good with leaving them out.

 

[Toddrick]

I have been forced to keep food and water in my little coop, because on cold or windy days they will not come down out of it. I don't have a door on it either. My hen is molting hard, so she hides in there even when it is nice outside lately. What I did was put the brooder waterer and a bowl of food inside on top of the nesting boxes. I need to get some hanging treats in there to entertain them as well.

 

[Mallory8502]

True they don't eat or drink at night while they sleep. But there is a reason to keep some in the coop... the days you don't get up when they do and then they have to wait for you. If you are one to get up with the birds or don't light the coop in the AM, your good with leaving them out.

Yea this is a good point. I'm up at 6am every day but if I wasn't.. well I am pretty sure they would start eating each other by 9am

 

[konachicks]

Haha thanks everyone! I let them out at 6:30-7am on my days off, and my kids let them out when I work. The only days they stay in is mon/tues as its my long work days and I don't get home till 3pm. Because they're still peeping I don't like them out of im not home because mongoose are attracted to peeping. And my mother in law probably wouldn't save them lol
I have 2 9 week pullets that don't peep but 7 6 week pullets that do and is be so sad if mongoose got them

 

[RonP]

Chickens don't see very well in darkness.

They will not roam or move much at all until they have sufficient light.

 

[pdnarus10]

I have been forced to keep food and water in my little coop, because on cold or windy days they will not come down out of it. I don't have a door on it either. My hen is molting hard, so she hides in there even when it is nice outside lately. What I did was put the brooder waterer and a bowl of food inside on top of the nesting boxes. I need to get some hanging treats in there to entertain them as well.

I'm going to try a night light in my small co-op. Because on days that it's dark and it's raining. I'm not able to leave them outside. I find that they're not eating or drinking?. If I don't come around and open up the door then they come to drink. When I open the door and it's light. I'm gonna try that. What are your thoughts?

 

[pdnarus10]

Chickens don't see very well in darkness.

They will not roam or move much at all until they have sufficient light.

Thank you for that fact. I'm gonna get a night sensor light and put it in my small coop. Because it's too dark when it's raining outside and I can't let them out. I noticed in the day they would eat when I opened the little door to put the food in or change their water in the morning, but it was still kind of dark outside because of the clouds and the rain.