New chicks - watering/feeding setup

[MichaelSellers]

This is a great site with so much helpful info and inspiration. My very first 4-week old chicks arrive from MacMurray in a few weeks. The coop and run await their arrival, and I have a question about food and water:

The chickens will have access to a 125 sq foot run every day, accessed via an automatic coop door. The coop itself is pretty small which I why I limited it to three hens (2 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Star), all for laying.

I would like to keep the food and water outside beneath a covered section of the run. Is this going to be okay for 4-week old chicks? Once they arrive by mail my plan is to move them directly to the coop and give them access to a very small part of the run, where the waterer and feeder will be available. Will the chicks be okay in the coop overnight (8pm until 5am) without food and water?

Final question: I would like to use a nipple watering system. Is it okay to introduce this on day one as the single water source and hope they take to it, or should I have a regular waterer next to it so they don't dehydrate before learning how to use the waterer? If I have two sources, do I eventually take away the regular waterer to make the nipple system the only source?

Many thanks.

Michael, just north of NYC

 

[pawtraitart]

This is a great site with so much helpful info and inspiration. My very first 4-week old chicks arrive from MacMurray in a few weeks. The coop and run await their arrival, and I have a question about food and water:

The chickens will have access to a 125 sq foot run every day, accessed via an automatic coop door. The coop itself is pretty small which I why I limited it to three hens (2 Buff Orpington, 1 Black Star), all for laying.

I would like to keep the food and water outside beneath a covered section of the run. Is this going to be okay for 4-week old chicks? Once they arrive by mail my plan is to move them directly to the coop and give them access to a very small part of the run, where the waterer and feeder will be available. Will the chicks be okay in the coop overnight (8pm until 5am) without food and water?

Final question: I would like to use a nipple watering system. Is it okay to introduce this on day one as the single water source and hope they take to it, or should I have a regular waterer next to it so they don't dehydrate before learning how to use the waterer? If I have two sources, do I eventually take away the regular waterer to make the nipple system the only source?

Many thanks.

Michael, just north of NYC

For chicks I didn't hatch myself, I always have a regular drinker available for a few days so they can recover from travel stress. After that, I take the old drinker out during the day and leave the nipple drinker in 24/7. The regular drinker goes back in at night. I follow this routine for 3 days. After 3 days I don't put the regular drinker in there anymore because they will bond to it and wait for it to come back! The first rule of nipple drinkers is........REMOVE ALL OTHER WATER SOURCES.

If your weather is mild, (60 degrees+ F) 4 week olds can eat/drink outside. If not, I'd keep them in a draft free brooder situation until they are 6+ weeks old. I let my chicks eat/drink 24/7 in their brooder until they are 8 weeks old. They don't have to have food/water 24/7 at 4 weeks old but since I can't put them in the coops until they are older mine are treated like babies until they are ready for the coop.