My understanding is its not the cold but light that determines poultry production. So, my thought is regarding how I can produce some extra light for my hens, without adding to my electric bill.I've considered solar lighting, but even that would have some down sides since they never shut off at night and I want my birds to sleep sometime! But if nothing else I may have solar lights that get carried out into a bucket each day to recharge and into the hen house as afternoon/evening (3pm) feeding takes place. Then later I take the bucket out again closer to 8pm. This wouldn't produce as much light as say 100 watt lights, but I feel for the hens being cooped up in a shed that gets dark by 4:30pm every day during winter months! Heck I suffer from the lack of light!!!
so I sympathize with my birds.
I'm working on an experiment as part of my biology Master's degree that challenges the old adage that chickens need so much light to sustain egg production. Commercial operations usually run on a 15 hour light cycle but those hens are bred for the specific task of laying eggs and they have a very limited life cycle under controlled environments.
My theory is that our backyard flocks produce eggs based on factors other than available light hours. I think that age, health and food sources are more important factors for egg output. I'm still gathering data so I won't speculate just yet, but my control flock has shown an initial decline in production even though the available light has increased. I can show a correlation between lower egg output and a reduction in green vegetables and insect protein for the month of January. This leads me to think that fewer worms and green food are factors in egg output. But like I said, I still need to collect and analyze more data over the next few months.
I'm sure that there will be some who will discount what I'm trying to analyze and claim that light is the mitigating factor in production. We shall see what science says about this experiment.
