Removing food at night

[justchookin]

I have only just got my girls 3 wks ago and they seem happy and healthy. I feed the eight of them in two troughs that are about 2-3 ft long. I give them grain and seed , bran and pollard, scraps, silverbeet from garden, seedy weeds and grass from garden.

The grain and seed troughs I remove from the run at night and bring inside so cat can guard. Am usually up between 7 and 8 depending how terribly I slept and first job of day is put refilled troughs into run and let chickens into run from coop.

I figure they're sleeping at night (go coop sundown) so no need to feed mice and rats. They r ok for that hour or so first thing in morning aren't they. Working on getting up earlier as summer kicks in here.

When I let them out to their run this morning I found 7 eggs, then the eighth chook came and plonked herself down and delivered the eighth. First eggs for my 20 wk olds. Yippee!

 

[silkie_sue]

are they getting a layer feed of any type?

 

[SteveBaz]

As long as there is water available Why change a good thing!!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I usually don't keep food or water in my coop either. They are outside during all the daylight hours. You don't see sparrows in the middle of the night getting up to get water, eh? Chickens don't need to either, IMO.

The water makes everything moldy. In wintertime though sometimes I will put the food and water in there for the cold snaps we get, since sometimes the coop door freezes shut, lol, and I have to pour hot water on it.

Edited to add: SteveBaz I posted this before I saw your post...to each their own, lol.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
That's the red flag I saw too.

But for the OP question, it's best to bring anything in that attracts vermin.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I feed my chickens grains and seeds too. See my BYC page if you are interested!