how many of you provide.....need concensus...

[ReikiStar]

Food and water in the coop at night. You just never know...

 

[pawsplus]

Not me. Mine have food and water in the run only. My girls are 8 feet up in their roosts all night, sleeping. What do they need food or water for? I'm up early and let them out by 6 a.m. -- which is usually well before they have descended from their roosts! Occasionally on the weekends I don't let them out until 8:00--even then it's clear that they only just got up.

 

[hallerlake]

Food and water in the run, not in the coop.

 

[calicokat]

We keep water in the coop, run, and another one out in the yard because they free range. It's the one gallon size plastic waterer. The one in the coop is up on a cinderblock (the block is turned onto its' side.) It is a reach for a couple of the littler bantums, but the other waterer (in the run) is on a smaller paver so they can go there if needed. The one in the yard is just on grass since there is no bedding around to get kicked into it, but still they never tip it.

I just really don't like leaving them without water and food. We have 3 kids, and sometimes things happen that make us late to taking care of the animals - so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Once in awhile, and usually only when we are late to let them out free ranging for the day, we'll find the waterer tipped over off the cinderblock. I figure some folks have been chasing each other around and flying in there, and that's how it happened. Silly kids!

 

[kemclaughlin]

I have water in the coop and in the run. I keep their feeder in the coop, but in the yard, there is plenty of free range. They do occasionally tip their waterer, but I just rake the bedding to dry it up.

 

[chi-rn]

Run only... up at 5AM every day with chihuahuas anyway. Never have kept water/food in coop-- no problem! My girls don't rush out in the morning like they're straved or dehydrated either. Usually, they're too busy hanging around my ankles to see if I'm offering anything better than what's in their containers!

 

[dbounds10]

I have water inside and outside, I have food only inside. The water jug is inside an unused next box and so far (8 weeks) they have not spilled the water. I dont keep food outside because of birds, other critters and rain getting into it. They go in and out of the coop all day. Eat and scratch outside, then go in for a snack, and back out again.

 

[CarolynF]

If you want to keep water inside use a bottle or bucket with a water nipple. They're inexpensive, easy, and clean. I got mine at QC Supply, but there are others, too. If you search YouTube you'll find several variations. And here on BYC a lot of people use them. Mine are set up with a 5 gallon bucket and pvc pipe.

 

[Animalian]

I have a small trough for dry food like scratch, a big automatic drinker like dbounds10's and a bowl for snack and wet food. By the end of the night the trough will be empty and I empty and clean out the snack bowl leaving no food for the mice! I used to feed the scratch using a big auto-dispenser thing and was going through a ridiculous amount of feed before I realised where it was going!!

All of this is in the "run" which is really just a small covered area on concrete I can shut them in as usually I let them out to free range all day.

When I do shut them in for the night in the roost/nest box area when its really windy/fireworks/stormy I fill their snack bowl with water and put it in with them.