[craig1981]

Following an early morning emergency 6am  yesterday with a relative  we all rushed out to the hospital grabbing what we could totally forgetting to let out the chickens . Luckily all went well at the hospital and relative is fine but on returning home last night 10 pm  it finally dawned on me that the poor girls hadnt been let out to get food or water so i put food and water in overnight and left a small corner light lamp on so they could see what they were doing which left me wondering how long can the girls go without food and water . I know its a question none of us never want to find the answer out to in our own chooks but just wondered really . 

[8doubles]

I think most reasonably sized animals can go a few days without food without causing physical harm. The lack of water is normally the killer but if your coop is like mine they probably found a few drips to have a peck at with the ice melting.

[grumpydad]

as said, food maybe a day or 2, but water is very important, not much more than a day.

the smaller the animal, the less amount of time they can do without food or water, unless they are designed to do without.

dont forget, everything out of the ordinary stresses a chicken, lack of water for a day or 2 may make them stop egg production for a while, until they recover

[Sassy]

I know it wasn't ideal but don't beat yourself up about it. Think about the awful people who abuse their animals. One day might cause a hiccup in laying but they should be fine.

I can remember feeling awful because i forgot to put my horses water bucket in his stable one night. But it was hardly going to do much harm for a few hours.

PS I hope your relative is alright now