keeping food inside or outside?

[lendavis]

I have 9 week old chickens and I've been taking the food and water outside to the run during the day and then transferring the feeder and waterer to the henhouse at night. Do I need to be doing this? Should I just keep the food and water in the henhouse? The chicks tend to stay outside all day...would they come in for food and water?

 

[Lesa]

This is truly up to you. For a variety of reasons, you will find people do both.... I have water outside and inside (weather permitting). I keep the food inside. However, once it is dark, your chickens are not going to be eating. I keep it in there, in case they want food early in the am before their door opens. Others have had trouble with rodents, etc. having the food outside. No right or wrong answer to this one. Try both and see what makes you and your birds happiest. Enjoy!

 

[Imp]

What Lesa said. I keep mine in the coop, but I live in damp rainy Seattle. It's your call.

Imp

 

[Carenm]

We keep them in but the girls have open access to the coop all day. They come and go as they want.

 

[teach1rusl]

I do both as well... One benefit of having it indoor is what Lesa said. The chicks probably wake up before you, so they're not waiting on food and water until you get out there to tend to them. If you keep the food in the coop, they will learn to go inside to eat.

 

[Warthog]

I keep mine outside.

 

[sydney13]

ive tried to keep the water in the coop as they are free range but mine arent smart enough to go in when they are thirst so now i just take it out with them

 

[ericl]

We keep water and feed in the coop. This enables them to eat and drink early in the morning before we let them out. Also it protects feed from our frequent rains.

 

[sandiatonimarie]

I have water and food both places. I put their smaller brooder feeder and waterer inside the coop and regular size feeder and 3 gallon waterer outside in run. Regular size feeder is hanging underneath the coop/henhouse to protect it from rain and seems to be working fine. The chickens use both depending on weather, bad weather, they stay inside, nice days they run back and forth, eat and drink in both areas. My run has a roof and hardware cloth/wire is buried about a foot deep at the bottom so hopefully, I will not have problems with rodents digging into the area to get at the feed. If your feeder can hang on a chain or be hung from a wall and thus, off the ground, that is supposed to help with the rodents, too.