Are they smart enough to come in out of the rain?

[catsew]

Right now I have the food inside, but will move it under the coop once the permanent run is finished. Then I will have one of those pvc feeders on the inside, but they still wouldn't have water, except for winter inside.

 

[kareninthesun]

I'm in San Diego, so we don't get much. About two weeks ago we had unexpected very light rain. More like the clouds were practicing spitting. It was hysterical to watch the three month old free rangers. They'd stop, look all around, hoping it was a fallen bug until getting hit on part of their body, then they'd look all around like, "Who did that?"

I think I've trained them without knowing I've done so to go into the coop; the routine of the day is to add fresh hay to the coop, resupply the food/water, check for possible uninvited guests, then bring the chicks out from their brooder to their play yard while the older ones play/forage. Towards evening, its clean up with the hose with the jet stream attachment on all things cement or wherever they chose to roost/play around the patios. Then I spot jet any places on the grass where they dropped gifts, and put the sprayer on rain for general watering wherever outside the chicken's dry areas are. The free rangers always start off by staying away, but end up together back in their coop. Not like I hit them with the water or anything. The babes in their pen were at first afraid of the sounds and huddled as far away as possible from the hose, but now they just watch unless I'm closer to them, then they run like mini-feathered Frankensteins to their covered area until they deem it safe, nothing flying wet is falling down outside their area.