Leaving food but not water in the coop overnight

[SusanD]

HI,

I was wondering if putting food in with my chickens overnight (to avoid attracting pests), but not water (because of the mess) would be safe? Or is the water needed to make the food easier to digest and prevent impacted crop? My chickens have been eating and drinking at night, probably because we have a red heat lamp in their coop, are somewhere between one and two months old, and usually come out of their coop for the first time around 9 or 10 (once things have started to warm up).

 

[Egghead_Jr]

How old are your birds? It's probably time to ween the heat lamp. There's no reason not to store your feed in the coop to keep the pests from night feeding. Once the birds are off heat lamp they wont be eating at night. They roost from dusk till dawn depending how much light is let into the coop.

I keep food and water outside of coop at all times and just let the birds out when I get up after I start the coffee brewing (6-7am).

 

[Kikiriki]

Chicks need water all the time. They are up and down all night long until the light source is gone. The need for a light is going to depend upon the temps where you are as well as their feathering.

Mine are now 4 weeks old. The house gets to 69 degrees, but the chicks should have 75 minimum, so after this next week I will stop using the light, then they will sleep through the night. Observing them, they tend to stay away from the heat source when they are awake. They don't huddle to sleep, but they do still sleep under the light a good part of the time. This tells me they are still needing the heat source.

Watching them is the best way to figure out if their needs are being met and for deciding what changes you can make.

 

[SusanD]

Thanks, both of you for the advice. They are at least 5 weeks now, (we got them the last week in February), so I agree that it might be time to start weaning them from the heat lamp. I have been hesitant, because of thinking that it might be too much of a drop to go from 70/60 to our night time low of 30/40, and also because my Langshan is not completely feather (still has some down on her neck). I will leave the water in the coop, until they are completely done with the heat lamp.

When you weaned yours from the heat lamp, how much did you drop the temp on them at any one time? I assume this needs to be done gradually, but I'm not sure how gradual.