If you are a new poultry keeper, you may not have an idea about the supply time of the poultry feed to the chickens.
That is why you may have a question: do the chickens and other poultry birds need food and water in the coop or run area at night?
You don’t know the specific supply time of fresh layer feed to the coop. Already, you have also a well-designed coop that has a ventilation system.
N.B: If you don’t have a reliable coop with the nesting boxes, you can check it.
You may have a question: should you provide food of a balanced diet or a varied diet for the healthy chickens at night time?
Like you, some people also want to know the answer to this question: do adult chickens (adult poultry birds) need layer feed and water in the coop on cold nights?
For finding that answer, you have already done a google search but still don’t get an exact answer.
Now, You want the exact answer: yes or no.
So, I think, you have chosen the right blog post where you can get reliable information. For that, you should read this post with concentration to get the answer to this question.
Normally (most of the time) you don’t need to supply any type of food at night time. But the answer is not complete. Some more notes you should know if you are a new chicken keeper.
Because you should keep alert about their (farm birds) health and other issues. You may seriously learn new things about backyard chickens/backyard flocks.
So, continue this post…
Do All Chickens Need Water at Night Time?
Do you think your poultry birds are messy eaters? If you think so, you need to use waterers (water vessels) to that place.
When chickens awake, they may need to drink at any time. For this reason, you may keep a reliable chicken waterer (single water source) on the ground side of the coop.
But at night time, they need to sleep. For this reason, they don’t require drinking. When they wake up in the morning, they need to drink instantly for their biological processes.
The chickens have left out of the coop overnight and at that time they find food. This is the reason why you should place the chicken waterers on the ground side, the run area, floor space of the chicken coop, feeding stations, and water stations.
You should maintain the water level of the waterer. There are different types of waterers in the marketplace and you may choose as your requirement.
N.B: You should keep the specific temperatures (10°C to 15°C) for drinking water for mature birds. (source)
If the heating temperature is high, poultry birds may have problems. Some people keep waterer outside the coop. But in my opinion, you should keep the waterer inside the coop so that farm birds can drink when they need it.
Do All the Chickens Need Food at Night Time?
You may have a question: do all the raising chickens or poultry birds eat at night? Yes, they need layer feed at any time, when they wake up in the morning.
So you give access to water and feed to the farm birds to eat at any time. Besides, they may eat in the middle of the night, if the farm birds woke up at that time.
But this is rare and normally farm birds/wild birds eat food in the early morning.
If you have a chicken coop, you should place a better chicken feeder on the right side of the bottom section of that coop.
But if you don’t have a plan for a well-structured and elevated chicken coop, you may collect it.
You should remember that the protein type of chicken feed helps to grow feathers quickly.
What is the Best and Most Reliable Way to Provide Water to Chickens?
You should provide water by using a reliable chicken waterer. This is why farm birds easily drink. The place where the waterer is placed will not get dirty quickly. This is the advantage of using the portable poultry waterer.
Should You Keep Food in the Chicken Coop?
Some people keep the automatic chicken feeder outside the coop. In the rainy season, water may damage that layer feed. Rodents, predators, and other animals may attack that layer feed at any time.
Besides, your neighbor’s chicken may eat that feed. For this reason, you will need more food than required.
So the best solution is that you should find a place for keeping a chicken feeder inside the chicken coop.
If the size of your coop is small, then you can keep the feeder outside the coop. But make sure that this feeder is in the shelter area for rain protection.
How Long Can a Poultry Bird or Chicken Go Without Water and Food?
This situation is not the same for all types of chicken. For Example:
a. Free-Range Chicken
These chickens will live, if you don’t provide any food. Because they automatically collect food around the home side.
b. The Chickens of the Coop
You should provide layer feed to these types of farm birds regularly. If these poultry birds don’t eat food and water for more than 1-2 days, they will have a nutritional problem. So feeding schedules for chickens and other farm birds are also important.
Remember: You should keep fresh and running water and layer feed to the chicken coop.
How Long Can a Chicken Go Without Food in the Cold Season (Winter)?
Normally, if the chicken is healthy, then that chicken won’t stay without food for more than 3 – 5 days in the cold weather (cold temperatures).
But the condition is that you should provide water to that chicken at that time. This calculation may vary according to the chicken’s strength. In the hot season (warm weather/warm environment), this calculation will not match.
If the chicken lives in the coop all the time, then you should provide food regularly. This extra food may help the chickens to produce body heat or body temperatures in the winter season and water heaters may be needed for warm water.
If you keep them free range and stay outside the coop in the daytime, then these poultry birds can stay longer without your providing food.
Because at the day time they can eat insects and grass from your garden and yard of the house.
When Do You Keep (Provide) Food and Water in a Coop At Night time?
Chicks or baby chickens may eat food at night hours and during daylight hours. Regularly they wake up late at night and at that time they need food.
Some backyard chicken flocks sleep in late at night and some farm birds sleep early. Before going to sleep at the indoor roosts at night, they may need food.
If you want to provide instant layer feed to them, you should keep a feeder and waterer in the chicken coop and brooder box.
When these pets need feed, they eat from this feeder at any time. Some poultry farmers provide water with apple cider vinegar for the chicken’s health.
However, there are some real facts for keeping chickens or poultry birds inside and outside of the coop. So you should know to keep the chicken feeders inside or outside the chicken coop.
Advantages of Keeping Food and Water Inside the Coop
- Remain fresh.
- No outside animals (fox, dogs, cats, etc) can’t eat or spoil it.
- Will not be affected by outside bad or inclement weather (storm, wind, rain, etc).
- Remain clean for a long time.
- Insects and bugs don’t attack feeders (feed containers) and waterers (water containers).
N.B: If the feeder and waterer are outside, regular dust may be stored.
Advantages of Keeping Chickens Outside the Coop
- Need less layer feed to provide because chickens can collect food from the garden, home side, or other places.
When to Put the Poultry Chickens Inside the Coop at Night?
You may have a question about what time the chickens/poultry birds go inside the coop regularly.
It depends on the condition. If you want chickens to stay in the coop all the time, then you should provide regular food to them.
If your poultry birds stay outside the coop during the daytime and sleep in the coop at night time, you don’t need to provide enough layer feed and excess water to them.
In this situation, you should be sure that your pets should go inside the coop after the end of daylight. Besides, automatically chickens enter the coop for sleeping at night time.
If your poultry birds stay outside the coop after evening, wild animals may attack in that situation. These types of wild animals may attack the poultry birds at any time when these poultry birds stay outside the coop.
So you should be alert to this situation and take the necessary steps.
How Much Food and Water Do the Chickens Need?
An adult or mature chicken can drink around 0.5 liters of water daily. (source)
To produce the weight of 6 pounds at 70 days, a broiler needs around 12 pounds of boiler feed. (source)
N.B: If you worry about losing the weight of chickens, you should know the information. You should also know whether the hens and roosters can eat layer feed or not?
Besides, according to the flock sizes, you can easily measure what amount of poultry feed you need to provide your farm birds.
If the chickens stay in the coop all the time then they will need more layer feed. If the chickens stay outside the coop for the daytime, then they will need less layer feed.
If you want to keep your pets healthy, you should contact a poultry veterinarian for knowing the actual needs of poultry feed and the health results of your current farm birds. At the same time, you should avoid moldy food for them.
Do the Ducks Need Water and Food at Night Time?
Ducks may eat feed and water at any time before sleeping. So you should place a feeder and waterer near the place where ducks stay all the time.
If your ducks stay outside the coop, then you don’t need enough poultry feed. But you should provide them with nutritious food (essential nutrients) for their energy and better health.
The treatment process is the same as pet chickens. But you should contact the duck veterinarian to know more information about providing healthy food.
Do the Chickens (Poultry Birds) Need Enough Heat in the Winter?
Normally healthy chickens can stay in the winter season too. But some poultry farmers provide specific heat to the chickens in the cold weather.
So you should know why poultry birds need a reliable heater for the chicken coop? If you don’t know about this topic, you should read another article where I have shared important notes about specific heat that chicken needs or not.
My Viewpoint
Finally, I want to say that you should read more information about chickens and their food habits.
If you are a beginner and want to keep chickens, you should read some basic guidelines. You should also focus on the food for providing better quality.
You should also contact your local veterinarian for providing quality feed for poultry birds. Timely providing poultry feed and water to the chickens is a very important issue.
If the chicken house is very small and you keep the waterer in that place, then there may be a problem with the imbalance in humidity/moisture.
This is why I have shared some important notes in this post. You should read the total post for knowing the poultry food issue.
If you are interested you may know the answer to this question: Do chickens (poultry birds) have nipples or periods?
You may have a question: do the poultry birds or chickens need light at night?
If you have some more time, you should read the FAQ questions and answers. After reading these answers, I think you will know more data about the feed of the farm birds for a short time.
FAQ: Do the Chickens Need Food and Water at Night
Why do Some Chickens Stop Eating and Drinking?
If the health condition of the chickens is good, they don’t stop eating. Even if there is a serious health condition to some poultry birds, they may stop drinking too.
Getting stressed, and having an injury may also be the reasons to stop eating any kind of food. When you see that any chicken doesn’t eat properly or eats a small amount of food, then you should check if they are sick or not.
If you don’t understand this issue, you can take the help of your local poultry veterinarians.
What Time do the Poultry Birds (chickens) Go to Bed (home) in Winter or Summertime?
When the daylight is not available, then the chickens think to go to their house to take a rest. This rule is the same for both winter and hot seasons.
Should You Hang the Chicken Feeder?
The better way is that you should hand the chicken feeder at the required height of the chicken. If you place the feeder without hanging, layer feeds may not remain fresh.
Besides, some layer feeds may be seen on the ground floor. As a result, an unhealthy area will be created which is not good for chickens. So you should not place the feeder at the ground level.
Do the Chickens Drink Dirty Water?
Normally, chicken loves to drink fresh and clean water. If they have an urgency to drink, then they may drink dirty water.
This is why you should provide them with clean drinking water and change the previously given water after some time.
You should regularly inspect the waterers so that you can stop biofilm buildup (growth) in that water source.
Besides, for the breed of chicken and egg production, freshwater is needed. During cleaning any brooder, clean water is also required.
Should You Provide Water to the Chicken in a Bowl?
You can use a flat type of bowl for keeping water. If you use a bowl, you need to place it on the ground. It is not a good idea to keep a bowl and provide water from that bowl.
Sometimes, chickens may poop in that bowl. You know that wet chicken feed (food) is not good for them. The best way is to use a portable chicken waterer and hang it properly so that poultry birds can use it easily.
Where Should You Put Food and Water for Poultry Birds/Chickens?
If you have a chicken coop, you should put food and water inside the chicken coop. You should keep the reliable feeder (for eating food) in the ground section of that coop.
You should also place the waterer (for drinking water) at that place. If you have applied a deep litter method (degree of litter management), then keeping the waterer at that place may create a problem.
Can All the Chickens/Poultry Birds Drink Rainwater?
For the chickens, rainwater is more useful than normal water. But the problem is that you can’t collect rainwater for the total year.
This type of water is very clean and you need to require proper maintenance for storing. This is why you should be ready all the time to collect rainwater in the rainy season.