Potential Hurricane coming - how long can I keep my chickens locked up without their food or water?

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ForFlocksSake

ForFlocksSake

Songster
Jun 2, 2023
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North Florida/Panhandle
We have a tropical storm/potential hurricane heading our way. It's supposed to begin this evening into tomorrow. I plan to turn off the auto coop door to keep the girls safe inside until the storm passes. I prefer not to put any food in the coop ever in order to avoid ants and im not sure how I would put water in there for them without them knocking it over or pooping on it. Their actual chicken house is basically just for sleeping and laying. They have floor space beneath the roost bars to walk around but if I were to put water in there over night they would likely be pooping on it from the roosts. How long can they be without food or water? The last time this happened I was able to let them back out by 9am so it wasn't a big deal. Is it dangerous to keep them overnight and into potential midday tomorrow without food or water?
 
sdm111 said:
A few days. Chicken keepers including myself do what called fasting every couple weeks or so to clear a chickens crop out by not feeding for 48 hours or so. They will be fine, hungry yes but OK.
Click to expand...
Just curious, how does this fast benefit their health?
Are they allowed to forage while fasting?
 
I would just bite the bullet and put food and water in there. It may not be what you prefer, but it's only temporary. Is there anywhere you could hang a feeder and waterer in there? Perhaps if you make a cutout out of cardboard, you could make a shield to keep the poop out? In any case, it's better that they have water and food that's a bit messed up for a few days than no food or water at all
 
I've got ducks and geese, which are much messier about water than chickens are, but even then I just suck it up and put food and water in their coop in super bad weather events. Just be prepared for a thorough clean out afterwords. You could put whole grains in with them instead of pellets/crumbles if you're worried about feed getting mucky and gross.
 
ForFlocksSake said:
Water too? I doubt it will even be the whole day.
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If it's warm you could kill birds by withholding water during waking hours, even if it's just a couple hours, so that would depend on coop temperatures. I missed where you said it may be less than a day. If you're sure about that, they'd be fine without food. The water issue depends on the temperature. Storm conditions normally cool things off, so you may be good.
 
Yeah, there's a chance that the house might be inaccessible for several days (like New Orleans).
FrostRanger said:
I would just bite the bullet and put food and water in there. It may not be what you prefer, but it's only temporary. Is there anywhere you could hang a feeder and waterer in there? Perhaps if you make a cutout out of cardboard, you could make a shield to keep the poop out? In any case, it's better that they have water and food that's a bit messed up for a few days than no food or water at all
Click to expand...
 
Well, if they are going to be shut into a tiny box with no room to move around at all, you can do like the egg factory people do: hang troughs on the walls, one for water one for food. Put them higher than chickens' butts and use them only for emergencies. cover the brackets with something when not in use so chickens can't hurt themselves.
 

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