Need hand holding...!!!!!!

[mulewagon]

I don't keep food and water inside my coop, after the chicks got feathers and started ranging around the pen. There's a separate covered feeding station out in the pen. This keeps my coop much cleaner and better smelling, and gives the rats less reason to go in the coop (they were stealing my wooden nest eggs and leaving them around the yard, with toothmarks!) Also, the chickens are less likely to ingest poop with their food, since they liked to get up early, and pull it all out on the floor.

I rarely let them out before 8 am, and they do fine. They are Buff Orpingtons, and the coop is wire so they can see out. They don't fight in the mornings, and are healthy and putting on weight.

 

[Mrs. K]

I agree, I only feed my chickens during the daylight, and while I don't remove the feed, I try and keep it so that there is not a lot left over. Rodents love chicken food. I am usually out there within an hour or two of daylight, and mine do fine. If it works for you, then do it, and if it causes problems change it. mk

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

I guess it depends on what critters you have that like to eat your chicken's food. I keep the chicken food only in the coop. This is because when I put it outside in my uncovered run I was overrun with little wild birds. There must have been fifty of them eating the chicken food!