Do you keep food and water in coop?

GloriousNorious

In the Brooder
Jun 6, 2021
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Hello! New chick mama here. My almost 8 week olds are ready to move into their coop and run by the end of the week. Do you have any pointers to keep the flock destressed during the process? I have read some people keep the chicks in the coop for 24 hours before opening the door to the run. Do you keep food and water inside the coop at night time at this age?

Thanks
 
Some experts recommend keeping them in the coop for a week or two so they see their coop as home. We kept them in the coop for 3 days and this worked fine. During that time, of course, food and water are in the coop. Once they had access to the run, food and water were kept out in the run. We are new, as well, and found Storey’s Guide to Raising Backyard Chickens to be very helpful.
 
Some experts recommend keeping them in the coop for a week or two so they see their coop as home. We kept them in the coop for 3 days and this worked fine. During that time, of course, food and water are in the coop. Once they had access to the run, food and water were kept out in the run. We are new, as well, and found Storey’s Guide to Raising Backyard Chickens to be very helpful.
Thank you for the pointers. Sounds good to me. I will check out Storey's Guide to Raising Backyard Chickens too, definitely anything helpful is appreciated.
 
Yes, if you have adequate ventilation in the coop 2-3 days shut in will teach them to come back there at night to sleep. I like to remove food at night, but leave the water. It depends on how early you want to get up 😁

Assuming your coop is rodent proof you can leave food and water in all the time just for the first few days, just be wary of water spilling and soaking the bedding, and be ready to clear it out of needed. Then you can move everything out to the run or whatnot. You may still need to place them in the coop at night the first few nights after letting them out, kind of depends on the birds. I have some who caught on immediately and others who took a couple extra days before one starts leading the others to bed.
 
Ah, got it. Thank you so much, I will check that out too. I've read some of her blogs and I really like what
Just looked... I meant Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens. I also found The Chicken Chick‘s Guide to Backyard Chickens by Kathy Shea Mormino to be user friendly.
Great! Sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to reading those. 😄
 
Yes, if you have adequate ventilation in the coop 2-3 days shut in will teach them to come back there at night to sleep. I like to remove food at night, but leave the water. It depends on how early you want to get up 😁

Assuming your coop is rodent proof you can leave food and water in all the time just for the first few days, just be wary of water spilling and soaking the bedding, and be ready to clear it out of needed. Then you can move everything out to the run or whatnot. You may still need to place them in the coop at night the first few nights after letting them out, kind of depends on the birds. I have some who caught on immediately and others who took a couple extra days before one starts leading the others to bed.
Got it! Great advice. Thank you. There should be enough ventilation and space for the water and food, although I am already expecting the mess that comes with it 😂 They're very eager to move out of the dog crate and it's about to get real hot out here in the next few days so it's perfect timing to get their run set up and let the teenagers "move out" haha! I will probably let them out after two days and do what you said if there are stragglers 🙂
 
I keep the food an water in the coop. And plant to keep doing so. But I've made sure it was big enough to house this without being in the way. Also winters here are brutal and I have ran power to it just for the purpose of being able to put a stock tank heater in their waterer to keep it from freezing.

Stress wise all I did was after a couple weeks I set up a play pen IN their run to spend time outside up until they were ready to be permanently moved to the coop. What I did was I have a full sized door to walk through I just stapled up chicken wire against the door so when I moved them in there I could open the door up door in the day so they could get sun, warmth, and a breeze. Worked beautifully! Only took a week of that and they were completely trained on that was home.

Hope any of this helps,
Best to you and your feathered peeps.
Ry.
 
Hello! New chick mama here. My almost 8 week olds are ready to move into their coop and run by the end of the week. Do you have any pointers to keep the flock destressed during the process? I have read some people keep the chicks in the coop for 24 hours before opening the door to the run. Do you keep food and water inside the coop at night time at this age?

Thanks
I keep my food in the coop all the time (so it doesn’t spill and critters don’t eat it) and the water in the run (so I’m not increasing humidity in the coop). I keep a light on in my coop when training new pullets to come in at night. It seems to really help cut down on the nightly chicken chase.
 
Mine ended up being in their coop for a week more due to us having to wait in between rain to finish their run but it was also helpful because they know that’s where they go at bedtime. Also I keep food in water inside the coop always. They don’t touch it at night but it’s still there
 

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