Food and water at night

[balloonflower]

Well have attempted to block nests with cardboard as advised and 4 roosted-two broke through ha ha.  One was the broody slikie.  Have reinforced tonight so will keep you updated.

I had the best luck with using jugs filled with water to block the nestboxes. They couldn't move them aside, but they were easy enough for me to put in and out. It did take two per box.

 

[PaulaMc]

I had the best luck with using jugs filled with water to block the nestboxes. They couldn't move them aside, but they were easy enough for me to put in and out. It did take two per box.

Hi thanks for that. Sounds a great idea, but have a couple of miniature silkies, they'd probably squeeze in ha ha. cardboard seems to be working so will stay with that although am away for the weekend, on a course, and a neighbour looking after so we will see what happens.

 

[kjstanton]

I have always put food and water in my coop at night. I want to stop doing this because I'm finding that the food attracts critters and they don't seem to eat any of it in the coop anyways. The water is constantly getting spilled and I now have some moisture issues in the darn coop. My flock is only in the coop at night. They go in at dark and I let them out around 8 in the morning. None of them are babies and I don't use any supplemented light. They literally only roost and sleep in the coop. They free range all day. Even when they don't want to go out in the snow, I can put food and water right outside the coop where they can access it. What does everyone else do and is my plan OK?

I have a camera out in my coop. In the middle of the night some of my chickens get up to eat. This is only during the winter that I have noticed them getting up.

 

[kjstanton]

Chickens can't see in dim light so once they get settled on the roosts in the evening, they stay there until there's enough light for them to see again in the morning. They don't get up for a midnight snack, so it's okay to not put food in the coop. My chickens also free-range during the day and only sleep and lay eggs inside the coop. I have a hanging waterer with nipples inside the coop so they can get a drink in the morning while waiting for the lazy humans to get out of bed and open the doors. The hanging waterer eliminates spills. I have a metal trashcan that I put the feeders in at night so critters don't come eat the food. I like the chickens to have water available because it can be a couple of hours between them waking up and one of us going out to open the doors, but if they have to wait for food, that's fine.

At 12 and 1 I do have some chickens getting up to eat in the winter. Camera screen shot attached.