По утрам бабушка даёт курам зерно и меняет воду.

По утрам means in the mornings or every morning as a repeated habit.

That is different from утром, which usually just means in the morning and can refer to one particular morning or simply the time of day.

So:

• По утрам бабушка... = this is her regular morning routine.
• Утром бабушка... = grandmother does it in the morning, but the sentence does not stress repetition in the same way.

Russian often uses по + dative plural for repeated times:

• по вечерам = in the evenings
• по выходным = on weekends

In this time expression, по takes the dative plural.

The base noun is утро = morning. Its dative plural form is утрам.

So:

• утро = morning
• по утрам = in the mornings / every morning

This is a fixed and very common Russian pattern for habitual time expressions.

Because the verb давать / дать follows the pattern:

• давать кому? что?
• to give someone something

Here:

• курам = to the chickens → indirect object, so it is in the dative plural
• зерно = grain → direct object

So the structure is:

бабушка даёт курам зерно
= grandmother gives the chickens grain

Зерно is the direct object, so it is in the accusative case. But зерно is a neuter inanimate noun, and for many neuter inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks exactly like the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: зерно
• accusative: зерно

The form has changed grammatically, but not visibly.

Because вода is also a direct object here, and feminine nouns ending in -а usually change to -у in the accusative singular.

So:

• nominative: вода
• accusative: воду

That is why Russian says:

• меняет воду = changes the water

In Russian, the present tense of imperfective verbs is used for habitual or repeated actions.

So даёт and меняет here mean something like:

• gives
• changes

as part of a routine.

Because the sentence starts with по утрам, the meaning is clearly habitual: Every morning, grandmother gives the chickens grain and changes the water.

Both verbs are imperfective:

• даёт ← давать
• меняет ← менять

The imperfective aspect is used because the sentence describes a repeated, regular action, not a single completed event.

If you used perfective verbs, the meaning would usually shift toward a single completed action or a future result.

For example:

• даст = will give
• поменяет = will change

So imperfective is the natural choice for a routine like по утрам.

Даёт is pronounced roughly da-YOT.

The letter ё is important because:

• it is always stressed
• it is pronounced yo, not plain e

So даёт is not pronounced like дает with a simple e sound.

Also, in many printed texts Russians often write е instead of ё, so you may see дает, but the word is still pronounced даёт.

Because зерно here is being used like a mass noun, similar to English grain or feed.

It refers to grain in general, not to individual grains.

Compare:

• зерно = grain, feed, grain as a substance
• зёрна = grains, individual kernels

In this context, даёт курам зерно is the natural way to say that she feeds them grain.

Yes. Russian word order is relatively flexible because the case endings show the grammatical roles.

The given sentence is natural and neutral:

По утрам бабушка даёт курам зерно и меняет воду.

But other orders are also possible, for example:

• Бабушка по утрам даёт курам зерно и меняет воду.
• По утрам бабушка курам даёт зерно и меняет воду.

These versions can sound slightly different in emphasis, but the basic meaning stays the same.

Russian has no articles, so there is no direct equivalent of a or the.

Also, Russian often leaves out possessives like my when the meaning is obvious from context.

So бабушка could be translated as:

• grandmother
• the grandmother
• my grandmother

depending on the situation and the translation style.

Yes, that is the natural interpretation.

The sentence first mentions the chickens, and then меняет воду is understood as changes their water. Russian often omits information that is clear from context instead of repeating it.

If you wanted to make it more explicit, you could say something like:

• меняет им воду = changes the water for them
• меняет курам воду = changes the chickens' water

But in the original sentence, the shorter version sounds completely normal.