Food & Water In Coop & Run?

[Lisa-Lu]

Do they need food and water available in the coop and in the run?

 

[DobieLover]

They need access to fresh water at all times. Where you feed them is your choice and depends largely upon your setup.

 

[Shadrach]

What @DobieLover wrote.
I would suggest not feeding them in the coop because it may attract rodents. But as mentioned, it depends on your setup.

 

[Lisa-Lu]

Ok, this is our coop, the run is just below it, not a large space. We are planning to free range them during the day when we are around.

 

[imnukensc]

I would have food and water only in the run with that set up and in your climate.

 

[DobieLover]

Ok, this is our coop, the run is just below it, not a large space. We are planning to free range them during the day when we are around.

Okay. With that setup I would always leave the pop door open, remove that silly little ramp and feed and water in the "run". Collect their food dish each night.
I would also add a predator apron around the perimeter of that coop. Just attach 2' wide hardware cloth all the way around and pin it down to the ground with landscape pins. Maybe also cover it with landscape blocks in case you want to move the whole works too fresh ground, which you likely will.

 

[Lisa-Lu]

We just attached a predator apron yesterday with welded wire mesh, attached it to the coop with zip ties(about 2 inches is inside the coop), and will be pinning to ground with pins. Great idea to cover it with landscape blocks, I was wondering what to do there.

Thank you so much for the tips, I didnt know that I should remove the food dish every night, but yes will do. We live on 60+ acres in the woods, so lots of critters and pests to worry about.

 

[rosemarythyme]

In a little coop like that food and water have to be out (probably underneath the coop section), there's not going to be any space in the coop itself for it

We just attached a predator apron yesterday with welded wire mesh, attached it to the coop with zip ties(about 2 inches is inside the coop), and will be pinning to ground with pins. Great idea to cover it with landscape blocks, I was wondering what to do there.

Do not cover the apron itself with blocks (some gravel might be ok) as that will negate the point of having it down by encouraging pests to dig at the border of the blocks rather than the border of the coop. The idea is to let them dig at the base of the structure into the wire and then give up.

I'd also replace the zip ties with something metal like hog rings, just for extra security. Not sure how you currently have it all attached (I saw you had another thread where you mentioned overlap into the run, photos would help explain it) but ideally you want to run a little of the apron up the wall of the run, that will keep overlap off the ground and gives you extra anchor points to attach the parts together.

 

[R Wind]

Do they need food and water available in the coop and in the run?

Question: Adding onto this thread if you don't mind.

We've been confining the chickens to the coop at night, as we weren't 100% sure of our predator precautions on the attached "secure" courtyard. (The apron is mostly finished but there's one place where a tree has roots right outside the fence, difficult. And I have not put landscape pins to hold down the outer perimeter of the apron yet.)

But we have moved all their food and water to on-demand feeders/waterers in the attached "courtyard" (aka run).

The other members of the family say, "They don't drink at night anyway."

But I'm concerned that they need access at least to water 24/7. Do we need to add a second water source (maybe a PVC pipe on the wall with automatic drip nipples) inside the coop if we are closing the pop door between coop and run at night?

 

[TooCheep]

But I'm concerned that they need access at least to water 24/7. Do we need to add a second water source (maybe a PVC pipe on the wall with automatic drip nipples) inside the coop if we are closing the pop door between coop and run at night?

No. They can go without water for 8 hours (or so) just fine.