How much does daylight affect egglaying

[Fred's Hens]

The adage "Chickens Must Have 14 Hours Of Light" simply cannot be correct. Chickens nearer to equator never get 14 hours of light, yet are prolific. From about the Tropic of Cancer down to the Equator and then on down to about the Tropic of Capricorn, the days are virtually 12 hours, year 'round. Hawaii never gets 14 hours of light, for example, IIRC.

That 14 hour thing must have come from some study by the commercial, industrial folks as to maximizing or ramping up production, or similar. But the axiom get repeated here far too often as if it were gospel, and it is not. No offense intended to anyone.

 

[southerndesert]

Fred's Hens :

The adage "Chickens Must Have 14 Hours Of Light" simply cannot be correct. Chickens nearer to equator never get 14 hours of light, yet are prolific. From about the Tropic of Cancer down to the Equator and then on down to about the Tropic of Capricorn, the days are virtually 12 hours, year 'round. Hawaii never gets 14 hours of light, for example, IIRC.

That 14 hour thing must have come from some study by the commercial, industrial folks as to maximizing or ramping up production, or similar. But the axiom get repeated here far too often as if it were gospel, and it is not. No offense intended to anyone.

Indeed that is where it came from and does work.... Many birds are stimulated by longer light and it is likely installed by nature to help with egg survival as well as rearing chicks since longer days also means warmer weather and more abundant food.

Birds are on a time clock as are many plants and animals so they "just know" when the time is right to reproduce, molt, etc. Stimulating this instinct keeps hens laying at peak and thus make more eggs for the seller.

There are numerous studies out there one can read on the subject, but as Fred said it is not gospel and hens in the areas mentioned still lay.

Yes we use it here as we keep hens to sell eggs and feed our family and want to keep things consistent and the most productive we can get and experience has taught us it works and production indeed slows without keeping light at a 14 hour minimum for us.​

 

[un-named]

Quote:
Do you think light 24/7 affects sleep though? Shouldn't they have at least night time hours with restful darkness or does it just not matter?

 

[allpeepedout]

Many scientific studies, and an AMA policy statement, link night-time lighting with hormone disruption in people and cancer, so harm to health may also occur in other animals.

I'm not saying that extending the day a few hours will be harmful (and for those who dispose of their chickens at after age 2, who cares) but offering this information because it may be interesting to some. Maybe having a timer is a good compromise vs. 24/7.

 

[southerndesert]

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Do you think light 24/7 affects sleep though? Shouldn't they have at least night time hours with restful darkness or does it just not matter?

I would think also that 24 hour light would not be a good thing and again as Fred said "they also need their rest" and too much light may just affect their bio-clock negatively.

Here is a very good paper dealing with lighting... http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mdarre/poultrypages/light_inset.html

 

[FiveHens]

Well, it may be that the chickens don't mind it, but I would never subject our girls to light 24/7. That just seems cruel. However, we extend their day by having the light turn on in the coop several hours before dawn, so that they get around 14-15 hours of light/day (a normal summer day's worth). We can tell when we need to start using the light when the egg supply starts dwindling, and we try to give them just enough to keep it up there, and no more. If we didn't value their eggs so much, we probably wouldn't do it at all.

Good luck!

 

[TDM]

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Really? Then you too must believe that Cornish Cross meat birds are first generation.

 

[Aemelia]

I flip on our porch light around 6:30am when I let my hens out. So I wouldn't call that heavy duty lighting by any means. My Production Red and my Rhode Island Red have both stopped laying completely as of last week. I have no idea how to figure out what parallel I'm on. Since I live in Nebraska and Nebraska sits on the 40th parallel and I'm a good 60 miles north of that line it could be higher.

Interestingly to me my Silver Lace Wyandotte has started laying nearly an egg a day! While my reds were keeping us in eggs through August, Sept and Oct my SLW was more of a every other day or every 3rd day layer but she has kicked it into high gear with the cold weather. What on earth does that mean?

 

[SA newbie]

I live a stone's throw away from the Tropic of Capricorn, and we do get a lot more natural light. Winter time we looking at sunrise at about 6:20am and sunset about 6pm or so. So we get at worst 11 1/2 hours of light, summer about 13 hours. I would use a little light in the early morning if I lived that far north and don't see anything wrong with it, but 24/7 is just plain cruel! Imagine you had to have light that much- you'd never feel rested and would also be done for in 2 years!

 

[Fred's Hens]

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Really? Then you too must believe that Cornish Cross meat birds are first generation.

First, don't ever trust EVERYTHING. But seriously, as best I understand it, the CornishX is at least a 4 way cross.