Will Brooding Lamp in Main Coop Affect My Adult Birds?

[rfreedlund]

I have a partitioned off section in my coop where I separated two broodies that successfully hatched and raised chicks. The partition is basically just 2 x 4's and chicken wire, but did a great job keeping the broodies apart from the others and helped easily integrate the new chicks into the flock as all of the birds, both young and old, could see each other through the whole process. I do plan on adding some 1/2-inch hardware cloth to the bottom of the partition, though, so the new chicks can't stick their heads through.

I now want to use this same partitioned off area to raise some new chicks that I have ordered arriving later this month. My question is, if I use my regular red heat lamp in the partitioned area to keep the chicks warm, will it negatively affect my adult birds who are using the remaining larger part of the coop? As there will always be some light in the coop, even if it is the less harsh light of the red bulb, I want to make sure that it won't mess up the day-night cycle too much. With mother hens I didn't need the heat lamps, so this is something new I plan on doing.

While I should probably still go ahead and invest now in one of the plate style brooders, I still want to hear your opinions if I did decide to go with my faithful red heat lamp.

 

[vicki hhh]

Laying depends on both temperature and hours of light-pullets-very young layers should only have no more hours of light than 12--artificial light on mature layers will cause them to lay more-but some say this forcing them to lay more--unnaturally--even to the point of shortening their life expectancy-

 

[rfreedlund]

Laying depends on both temperature and hours of light-pullets-very young layers should only have no more hours of light than 12--artificial light on mature layers will cause them to lay more-but some say this forcing them to lay more--unnaturally--even to the point of shortening their life expectancy-

Thanks for the reply... But my concern is the effect of the single red brooder lamp that will be hanging in one corner of the coop reasonably low. I know that when I have used it to brood chicks in the past it still remains pretty dark in the coop at night time and the chicks still settle down at night (which is why I don't like the white lamps for brooding as the chicks tend to not settle down as much), but it still won't be totally dark. I definitely am not planning on lighting the whole coop with a bright white light. I just want to know if a single red lamp in a corner hanging low enough for chicks would be unwise and have the same negative effects.

 

[rfreedlund]

I am answering my own question here as responses were few, but I did go ahead and set the two red lamps over the brooding area in the main coop separated from the adult hens. While the light given off by them is enough to see what is going on in the coop even at night, it doesn't seemed to have bothered my adult flock at all as the light emitted is low. The chicks are growing now at two weeks old and they are not bothered at all but the adult birds moving around and existing next to them. Unless something changes, it does appear that the red light is not messing up the cycles for adult chickens. They still go in at nightfall and are ready to be let out at dawn.The chicks also seem to follow the pattern of the adults as they sleep and wake. The adults do stay perched as they normally would despite the additional light given off by the brooder lamps. I wouldn't try this, though, with the standard white lamps.