Food/water in coop

[BigBlueHen53]

Ah, sounds good. You know, even with a rooster you don't get babies unless you either incubate the eggs yourself for 3 weeks or park them under a broody hen (if you happen to have one) for 3 weeks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

In your experience have you found that leaving water out at night in the run attracts critters? Since we are in a moderate drought already, everything is thirsty and I've been hauling the water in nightly along with the food. It means two trips in the morning because I don't have enough hands for the feed, the waterer, the jug of water and the OS -- which would get wet overnight due to the extreme humidity so that is also brought inside. I would love to leave the waterer out but I thought it might be an issue. We are now having a rat / mice issue for the first time. Thoughts?

We have not found leaving the water out to be an issue. I wonder if you could put your OS in a container with a lid that you could close up at night and open in the morning, theat would save you on trip.

 

[Ridgerunner]

In your experience have you found that leaving water out at night in the run attracts critters? Thoughts?

It might or might not. What are the other water sources the critters can use? How accessible is the run? What critters do you have?

It has not been a huge problem for me but a neighbor has a farm pond right next to the run. And except for smaller critters it is pretty inaccessible.

 

[RubelliteRose]

In your experience have you found that leaving water out at night in the run attracts critters? Since we are in a moderate drought already, everything is thirsty and I've been hauling the water in nightly along with the food. It means two trips in the morning because I don't have enough hands for the feed, the waterer, the jug of water and the OS -- which would get wet overnight due to the extreme humidity so that is also brought inside. I would love to leave the waterer out but I thought it might be an issue. We are now having a rat / mice issue for the first time. Thoughts?

We haven't had any issues with mice since we removed the food, but we are also one property off of a marsh so mice have plenty of alternative water sources.
For oyster shell, I bought a bird feeder like this one a few years ago. The roof protects most of the OS and the tray had drain holes for any water that does collect.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm reluctant to leave food in the coop at any time. It always seems to attract something other than chickens.
I leave chick food in the coop for the first few days, or until mum marches the chicks outside. Even those few days has caused problems that necessitated daily clean outs, usually due to ants, but I've had rats trying to get at the chick feed. Fortunately, most broody hens won't tolerate them.

Currently I'm in a position that means I need to leave feed in the coop overnight because I'm not there to feed them in the morning; they get let out by an auto pop door.
It went okay for a while and then this psychotic rat decided they were going to get some of that food.
This is some of the damage the rat has caused so far, plus chewing through the auto door string trapping the chickens in the coop until I get there.

What I had to do to try and keep the rat out at the front.

Back of coop.

Keeping the rat out.

You may be lucky for a while but my odds are on word getting around there is food in the coop and should the coop be made of wood a determined rat can chew a hole big enough to get in in one night. The coop in the pictures is made from recycled plastic and I wouldn't want to chew the stuff!

 

[Al Gerhart]

Rats and mice don't mind chewing, it is chew or die from their teeth growing and curling up into their face. They have to chew to keep their teeth worn down. Aluminum, concrete, wood, all can be chewed through in time. Tile and steel will stop them and hardware cloth if it is the thicker gauges.

To stop rodents the advice will never change. Three methods to get there, two of which work, the third works temporarily.

One, sanitation method. Bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids, treadle feeder that is actually rat proof meaning it has a narrow and distant treadle and the door is pre loaded by springs to prevent rats from just pushing the door open. Then clean up the pathways the rodents are using to get between the coop and their dens so natural predators have a shot at thinning down the ranks.

Two, Ft. Knox coop. Ten time more expensive than method one but it can work IF there is no free range. Hardware cloth all around including the floor, no gap bigger than a quarter or a nickel for mice. Keep up the upkeep, watch for holes chewed through the coop.

Third, trapping and poisons. Rarely works due to the rodents being cautious and figuring out what kills them. Usually adult rodents will let the young ones try out something new for a few days before eating it themselves. Traps might catch a few before the others figure things out and the traps will seldom work more than a few days. There is an exception, if you begin using a treadle feeder, the rodents are very likely to fall for the traps and poison out of desperation. But, just wait a few days longer and the rodents will leave unless you have other forms of food available for them.

Rodents require humans to provide food. Natural territories seldom have enough food to harbor a rat colony unless there is an orchard or farm that is providing food. Once you stop feeding the rodents, they die or leave.