Food and water inside coop necessary?

[Goldenlace]

My 7 week olds have both inside coop at night however they now have run availability all day with water and food outside as well. Can I take food and water out of coop now? Chicks are closed inside coop at night. Pic upgrade- we now have the 1/2” on top of run as well. We are still updated our run and still a number of improvements coming up.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They don't need food or water inside overnight, generally. I take away the option around 4 weeks of age. Only exception would be very hot temperatures + you open up the coop late in the morning, in which case I would be concerned about heat stress.

 

[WIchickMama]

I agree with @rosemarythyme they do not need water or food in the coop. Some people always have water and food in their coop, it is a matter of preference not the birds needing it.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

I don’t have food or water in mine. Mine are out in their run by 6:30 am now that the sun isn’t coming up until then. And they are out there all day until they put themselves away about 7:45/8pm.

If they are going to be in there coop for a while in the morning than it probably would be best to have it in the coop, but if you get them out first thing in the morning I would think they would be just fine. When they go in at night they won’t get off their roost or where they are sleeping to eat or drink. If it’s a hot night though, as we do have some here where the temps stay up in the low 90s high 80s, I would offer at least water in their coop.

 

[Folly's place]

Our coop is a lot larger, and I'm not out there at dawn! So there's always food and water available for them. In a perfect world, managing mice would be easier if all the food went away at night, but that's not how things are around here.
Mary

 

[Goldenlace]

You are so right. Newbie here and haven’t had a mice problem yet. Trying to avoid all those issues I can.

 

[nuthatched]

I keep my food and water in the coop so elk and deer aren't attracted to break down my fence, but I'm the exception to the rule.

 

[Tonyroo]

Use your observations to guide what the next step should be.

 

[Folly's place]

Mouse traps, when you can't use snap traps with the chickens; recently i found a solution, the metal Victor mouse live trap, says it holds up to thirty mice at a time! Not so, but we've had fourteen in there at once! Set at night with chicken scratch as bait, along the walls in the coop, and recovered in the morning.
We had a huge infestation this year, and this is working! Mice are active at night when the chickens don't hunt them. I've been taking the traps out to wild areas and releasing them, because there's no way I'll drown anyone!
Mary

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I have chicks that are just over two weeks old and I pulled their food and water last night but they haven't been eating it at night since the first couple days after they hatched. They are in with a hen and they're under her all night. I kept it out because they were up pretty early to eat and I'm not up that early. You have to do what works for you but it shouldn't be necessary at this point