Stupid question...but do I need to supply water at night?

[Fred's Hens]

Water always. I see no point in humping water fountains in and out. Food at night isn't necessary if you feed regularly and early every day. I'd rather not offer rodents free feed, which grows more expensive with every trip to the store.

 

[McGoo]

Yes. Chickens will go off to sleep and they will not eat or drink over night... that's just the way it is, but they sure do poop a lot overnight

Also food in the coop would attract rodents and they sure don't need that.

 

[Gunternomad]

I got my first chicks about 6 weeks ago, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that a few times I 've snuck out of the house and went out to the workshop to check on my little babies in the brooder well past midnight.

What I found was that the little babies under the heat lamp were usaually fast asleep, but they don't stay that way all night. they are constanly waking up and eating and drinking and pooping and then going back to sleep. The funny thing is they almost never do anything individually. when one wakes up, they all wake up. When one pecks at something they all run over there and peck at it. When one gets hungry and eats they all suddenly decide it's dinnertime. And when one gets a drink, they all decide that's a good idea too. I'm thinking of cancelling my direct TV because I spend so much time watching chickens now.
I installed overhead lights in the large aviary where the older birds are and I find that If I leave the light on, they too will wake periodically and eat and drink throughout the night. I'm not sure what they do with the lights off.
But the younger chicks seem to not know the difference between day and night especially if they have the heat lamp on them, so they going about there eat, drink, poop, sleep, eat, drink...routine 24/7.
I keep food and water with them all 24/7., But that's just me.
I think the question would have to be is there any harm in keeping food and water with them all the time.

 

[lady feathers]

Quote:
I live in cetral MI so we may have similar weather here. If they are completely featherd and you have a few inches of bedding the temperature isn't a problem. I keep a bird feeder one of those skinny tube ones in the coop throughout winter for when I can't get the coop door shoveled out first thing in the morning after we get a few feet of snow or if my chickens decide the winter weather is just too harsh to come out. I don't keep water in there right now because I am limited on space but I do get up at dawn to lt my chickens out (in fact I set my alarm to get up and let chickens out, then go back to bed

) and I fill their waterer then and again twice more throughout the day if it freezes. Keeping it in the coop was pointless anyway cause in winter the water bowl I would place in the coop early in the season would be frozen within an hour of them going to roost so I gave up (I might add I didn't have anyway to plug in a waterer so that's why theirs is only outside-but less mess and no damp beddin is a plus frozen bedding is ridiculously hard to change/turn over in winter). But mine are all grown, until yours are grown keep some water in the coop.... if they make too much mess can move it outside after.

I would start with both feed and water in two spots if you have the space because you are dealing with two distinct "groups" of chickens that are at different ages, wouldn't want the big ones keeping the little ones off the feed/water. If you want them to coop themselves at night I would suggest keeping them in the coop for the first week all the time, if you can't do that then at dusk go out and place all the birds back into the coop closing up the door behind them. Over a few days you should see fewer chickens that need to be collected because they will put themselves to bed. As for leaving the door open..... I wouldn't!. If you want ventilation make a second screen door with hardware cloth, you are gonna have all the same candidates for predators that we do in MI and possibly a few more! If your entire run is predator proof I'd still close the coop door if you are wanting them to roost in the coop.... in these warmer temps they will want to stay outside until you have them trained not to!

Your 8 week olds shouldn't have any problems getting back into the coop all of mine would either use the ramp or simply jump/fly up into the coop at that age, I still had to place them "in bed" for the first few nights though. They tried to bed down in the run not because they couldn't get up in the coop though.... they just like the weather I guess!

Good luck!

 

[laws24]

THanks all! They did great left them food at least their first night here and no messes but boy were you right about the poop! Wow! how can 6 chickens produce so much poop!

Loving having chickens though!

 

[bucolic beauty]

Thank you for asking this as I was curious as well. Our two ducks, Caroline and Earl, live with our flock of chickens are quite set on turning the coop into a quagmire of water, hay and feces.