Feed and water: in or out?

[Dbennett]

I have seen a lot of pictures of coops with runs attached. Most of them have the feed and waterers outside in the run area or under the coop area. Don't the hens need access to their feed and water during the night if they are closed in their coop. Who knew I would have so many questions? And with chicks coming in a month; so little time.

PS - out of fear of making a mistake; I plan EVERYTHING to the hilt.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

When chickens are roosting at night, they do not eat and drink.

Some people put food and water in the coop, others leave it outside. I have a very small coop, so I leave the food and water in the run. And I let them out into the run not that long after it gets light. However, I do take up the feeder at night and close it up in a container so as not to encourage the presence of rodents.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I keep the food and water together so they don't choke on dry feed. So currently I have food and water inside the coop, but have been known to keep everything outside and do as YayChicks does, putting the feed away each night.

Now that we have our automatic coop door opener, I plan to keep everything inside the coop. But I always have a waterer outside too. I like to have a backup!

 

[tinydancer87]

I usually keep feed and water outside in the run. The exception to this is when I have chicks, then I keep a smaller waterer and feeder inside so they can eat away from the big chickens. I usually have to have some sort of enclosure so the adults don't eat all the baby crumbles.

And when I have a brooder light on at night for the younger ones, everybody will come down off the roost in the middle of the night if I go in there, and they'll mill about expecting something, so I keep a small waterer inside for that as well.

 

[gale65]

In the winter I keep water in the coop since it's plugged in. In the summer it goes in the run. We always keep food in the coop since we get rain quite a bit. I might try to find some kind of weatherproof feeder for the run.

 

[galanie]

Since I have a small flock, I put no food in the coop and even that which is outside gets put up at night. I tire of feeding all the rodents and wildlife around here. Even the treadle feeder got raided by possums and racoons at night. I do have water in the coop though.

 

[jmtcmkb]

I have a hanging feeder in the coop. I moved the water out to the run as it was swinging and spilling a lot, and I wanted easy access to change it. I noticed that the rarely went up to eat during the day, so I now affer food in both run and coop, water in run only. As my observation they only roost when they go in for the night. Sometimes I find them eating in the am if I dont get out to open door right off, for me this works well and they seem to be fine already laying and we are only at 11 hours daylight.

 

[Ole rooster]

When I built my setup I just went as though I was staying in there. When I go to bed I stay in bed, other than when nature may call me during the night. But the chickens get the call they don't move. I've put mine to bed at night and go back early in the morning before they get up and all are still in the same spot. So my feed and water are both outside with nothing inside but sand in the coop and a place for them to lay. And not all of them do that where I want.

One other thing I've found out is that the waterer if and when it gets low had a tendency to tilt to one side which spill water. I don't want any moisture inside the coop, so I'm glad I have all my feeding apparatus outside.

 

[ontimeborzoi]

As far as I can tell, once they are on their roost for the night they do not get down to eat or drink. I keep food inside the coop because I don't want to be luring opossums or mice into the run for a meal, plus I don't want it getting wet in case of rain ( even though the run is covered, rain can blow in...). Water stays outside. The chickens do get up very early and are ready to go outside before first light, so I open their door first thing before I have even had my first cup of coffee.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

In my layer coop the food and water is inside the coop, as they are let out every other day and I do not have a run for them. In my Sussex coop the food and water is also inside, as they do not have a run and are let out every other day if the weather is nice.

In my Poultry Barn I have food and water inside and out. I have 7 pens, and 4 runs. Some of the chickens do not get out every day so they must have food and water inside their pens.

I like having the water outside the coop as it makes it easier to clean every day. : )

~ Aspen