Waterer Inside the Coop at Night????

[9ByDesign]

We live in Florida and are first time chicken owners/ coop builders. Finalizing the coop this week.

Our coop has attached run (which the chickens are in all day unless free- ranging for an hour late in the day). Do we need to put Water/ Food INSIDE of the closed coop for closing the hens up at night? Do they need to eat/ drink during the night if they have free access all day?

Thanks.

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Technically they are sleeping and don't need it BUT if for any reason including those totally out of your control, you are not able to open that pop door and let them out and they have no food or water then it's bye bye birdy. I would highly recommend making food and water available at all times, day and night.

Welcome to the world of chickens!

 

[swimmer]

I would keep it in there for the same reasons. Especially for morning if the chickens are up before you and want a drink or to eat.

 

[Kittymomma]

I agree with the others. The water especially can be mess though so give some thought to its placement. I goofed when I first started and had it sitting where they flew/dropped into it when coming off the roost

If you invest in an automatic pop door you can just leave it in the run. I still would keep the food in the coop though since wild birds aren't as likely to find it when it's inside. Many people do take the food out at nite though, mainly because of problems with rodents.

 

[churchx3]

Food and water inside coop 24 / 7. Place my waterer on cinder blocks and stays relatively clean.

 

[mdbokc]

24/7 Food and water here.

 

[delfargo]

doesn't everyone wake up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and maybe a little snack?

 

[Dora'smom]

We keep both available at all times. Our waterer is sitting on a little platform of bricks in a corner of one coop, and my husband built a wooden platform with a lip around it in the other one. I know that often enough, they are up and hungry or thirsty before I'm out there, so this keeps them from eating each other.

 

[Ohhhdear]

I don't have much room in my coop for anything more than my chickens. They free range and are outside 99% of the day. Once they're out, they don't return to the coop to roost until it's full dark. But I don't always get up at the crack of dawn to let them out, so I have one of those quart jar feeders from TSC with laying crumbles in the coop on the floor right now. I'm looking for a wall mounted dispenser for feed.

I have a quart jar waterer from TSC I could use in the coop, but again, it'd be on the floor and subject to poop and tipping over and making a huge mess of the bedding. I did put it in the coop in the summer when it was so dreadfully hot. But I don't want wet messy bedding in the winter! Plus water freezes here in the winter (yay Michigan!

) I'm going to use the cookie-tin water heater underneath their 2 gallon waterer for their main water source outside.

My father in law (who raised hundreds of chickens in years past) told me chickens sleep very very deeply at night and don't wake up for "midnight snacks".

 

[MakNugget]

24/7.

It also depends on how well lit the coop is. If it's too dark for them to navigate I imagine they probably would not eat/drink. My coop has a light on a timer so they are active before me in the morning and after I close them up for some time. Both water and feed is low profile wall mounted units, and I have a secondary inverted waterer raised high on bricks for a secondary source. That waterer I change 2-3 times a day.