Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello To All,

I wanted to know if anyone puts feed & water inside the hen house over night; I was putting water inside but they kept knocking it over.

No, never. Like you've found out, they knock over the water and they poo in the food. They aren't going to die of starvation or thirst in the few hours they're shut away for the night. And they're ALWAYS ready for breakfast

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Always look on the bright side of life
View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

I have a large hanging galavanised container which holds a whole 20Kg bag of layers pellets hung up as their main food source.
I also have a 5 litre plastic cone type water container in there which has a mineral supplement added to the water.

Outside I have a stone sink and a washing up liqiuid bowl which I keep topped up from a water butt.

They get corn and treats put in the sand pit so they get a certain amount of grit.
All there greens are fed in the pen, usually a cabbage suspended fror them to pick at!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Mine always had access to the run (or to free range) so I never put anything inside the house.....

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

I put a hand full of corn in the pen at night in the winter just to keep the girls happy it also helps to keep the girls warm till morning , i never put water in the shed at night unless its a frost then i do because i can never get down till late in the day .

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Mick aka murfe 18

hmm, we usaly put the food in with the hens at night. Should we stop doing this as they dont seem to do anything that you mentioned. We also let them out as soon as we get up into their run. I dont know if that changes anything but if anyone would strongly recommend otherwise then please tell me and i will take action

I read that hens do not feed at night.

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Its an addiction and a pleasure

My ex-batts don't all sleep on the perches so they do "make a mess" all over the place during the night. I get them up at dawn and clear out the majority of the mess so they can then go and use the nest boxes. I've never put food in the coop for this reason. I think in my lots case, there'd be more wastage. I'm not saying "don't do it", I'm just not happy doing it myself. However, that may change as the nights get longer and they don't get quite as much eating time during the day. Think I might have to rig up something on the inside wall of the coop so they can't stand in it or poo in it

__________________
Always look on the bright side of life
View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

Morning All!
I think I'll keep to not putting any feed in at the moment but as Maureen says will prbably put some in as the nights draw in, I'm just worried about attracting rats though.

There is the danger of attracting rats, but if you were to leave food in the run overnight that would probably be a greater problem.
I keep my pellets (in feeder) in the house all the time as they would get wet outside and don't have a problem with poo or rats - but I'm aware of it...
I don't have water inside the house - as you say it makes an awful mess!

I was leaving my food in the coop at night as it was the only way to keep it dry (I now have a much bigger top to it so it stays outside unless there is a huge deluge..) I don't think the eat at night but I'm sure mine used to have breakfast before I let them out in the morning as they'd come out and drink lots so I assume the dry pellets made them thirsty..? I've only left water in the coop overnight once which was after one of my girls decided that drinking cuprinol garden shades might be tasty!! so I wanted her to have access to as much water as she needed (she's fine, looked very disgusted, dranks lots of water and wiped her beak alot then carried on eating my plants.. valuable lesson learnt, hens think anything and everything 'might' be edible.. )

Hi, My first time but like you i am getting Ex-Batts and can't wait to get them. I have given over my garden shed and have called the Ex-Batts rest home. I am getting four in Essex sometime soon. How long did it take your to grow back their feathers? Great reading all your responses.

I was told that when you first get your hens, you should keep them confined in the hen house for a couple of days before letting them out, obviously in this case you would put feed and water inside with them... or if you have an enclosed pen, do you not need to confine the hens in the house at all?

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'Resist compromise and hold on to the integrity of the original concept' Kevin McCloud

We were still told to keep ours in the house for a few days, so they know where to roost. Ours roost outside even though we did this!
I put water and food inteh house over night and they knocked both over! So now it's outside, need to find a better way to keep the rain off the food though.

hi i have 5 young ones that have recently come into lay we kept them in for one day andthen let them out the following morning after getting them, we left food and water in that first night and then took it out they are quite happy to put themselves to bed at night we never close them into the ark nowas they are closed in with the run, we have a middle section to the run that is covered, and the rest has mes roof. they always lay in the nesting box they all lay one egg every day the only problem we have is they totally ruin the grass under them in 4 hours we have moved them three times in 4 weeks and are now running our of space with new grass any ideas any one

Our girlees first 24 hours was in their hen house. I had a small dish of water and a dish of pellets & mixed corn with grit in there so they had what they needed.

Yes, by the morning the food was spilt onto poop drawer below and woodchips and shredded paper kicked into water. They were let out in a makeshift veg-bed pen (ohmigod! what devastation to the onions and spring onions!) whilst we made their run that would join the hen house.

I used to put a small pot of mixed corn and grit in their house overnight but they didn't eat it so all I do now is put their small drinker in there with them. I read that you should give them access to water in different areas. Although the girlees are in the run eating grass all day they only go to lay in nest box in house, so don't really drink that either - but it's there anyway.

I bought small D-shaped cups and I find them handy to hook on the sides of outdoor run to provide them with mixed grit, also they can clip on side of nest box too if you wanted.

I like the idea of the corn in house at night when the days are shorter. I guess we won't get to see hens in the middle of winter as it'd be dark when we leave for work and dark when we return.

If it is a Forsham ark (or similar size - check their website Chicken House, Poultry Keeping, Dovecotes and Doocotes, and Waterfowl Housing in the UK) they sell something called a scratch mat, which is a sheet of sturdy weld mesh. You put it on the grass and put the ark on top. It stops the girls being able to scratch quite so madly, and has a double benefit because it is bigger that the size of the run, it stops the fox being able to dig right at the base of the ark. That means he won't gain access before you've had time to move the ark to safer ground!

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'Resist compromise and hold on to the integrity of the original concept' Kevin McCloud