Considering some of the responses above, I went out to check on them in the dark about a half hour before the 75-watt bulb was to go off; you folks were right, they were already on the roost. Evidently they could see through the four windows and realized that it was already dark outside...
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L&LOL Awww, gosh, THANKS, but this winter all of my hens, my rooster, and the new chicks, hens, and roosters that I'm using in my breeding program are or will be in the west end of the barn (12x24) area that we have converted to a breeding area. They will be in there until March...
darkroo, that's really interesting, thanks. Tonight I'm going to check to see if they're on the roost before it gets dark and before the bright light goes off.
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Thanks, Pat, yes, I did consider the twilight. On Dec. 21st it will be at 7:31 A.M. (30 minutes before sunrise at 8:01 A.M.), and at 5:53 P.M. (30 minutes after sunset at 5:23 P.M.). I was afraid that inclement weather such as a dark storm or heavy clouds might block the twilight...
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I have no personal experience, but I've read here on BYC that hens laying 365 days a year have fewer years of egg laying. After all, like humans, they only have so many eggs to develop in their ovaries.
My hens were only getting twelve hours of daylight today. They quit laying about a week ago, so I decided to get a timer and increase the light time for them, but I didn't want to be changing it over and over.
I Googled for "sunrise sunset December 21, 2009, Greenwood, Indiana". From there I...