Hi all,
I'm not sure where this is more appropriate to the duck or coop forum so apologies if the normal etiquette is the duck one.
I've a few chickens and ducks - the chickens I'm fairly comfortable with their coop setup, though a little paranoid about the cold, but from everything I read they seem to be able to deal with pretty much anything as long as the coop is dry (the worst I can expect here is probably an extreme of -10C outside so they should be fine in their coop).
I've two questions, one about each coop:
1. Should I be considering putting a water dish in the actual coop (as opposed to a run - they free range during the day)? The reason I ask is I'm in Scotland, so the nights are long as the moment, so they're in the coop roosting from about 5pm until 7:30am or so.
2. For ducks, they too are closed in their coop at night (more for anti-predator purposes, we don't have many but we do get some foxes in the area) - should I be leaving a door open for them to a run of some kind so they can do their own thing while being protected? And similarly, if not, should I have a water dish in the coop for them? (I did previously, but they tend to just knock it over).
Many thanks as always.
I'm not sure where this is more appropriate to the duck or coop forum so apologies if the normal etiquette is the duck one.
I've a few chickens and ducks - the chickens I'm fairly comfortable with their coop setup, though a little paranoid about the cold, but from everything I read they seem to be able to deal with pretty much anything as long as the coop is dry (the worst I can expect here is probably an extreme of -10C outside so they should be fine in their coop).
I've two questions, one about each coop:
1. Should I be considering putting a water dish in the actual coop (as opposed to a run - they free range during the day)? The reason I ask is I'm in Scotland, so the nights are long as the moment, so they're in the coop roosting from about 5pm until 7:30am or so.
2. For ducks, they too are closed in their coop at night (more for anti-predator purposes, we don't have many but we do get some foxes in the area) - should I be leaving a door open for them to a run of some kind so they can do their own thing while being protected? And similarly, if not, should I have a water dish in the coop for them? (I did previously, but they tend to just knock it over).
Many thanks as always.
