14 Hours Per Day Of Lighting Question?

[Ema]

Quote:
I will be adding a double timer myself to the coop this thanksgiving weekend (I'm in canada) and I was wondering something and hoping you or someone else knows...can chickens see red lights?? I have the hat lamp on 24/7 in their coop now that its getting quite chilly up here. I just wonder if they can see once I turn off the day lights!! Also my DH and I have been debating whats better a compact fluorescent light bulb or an 18 Watt tube light?? we just wonder which one would be safer and provide better lighting. the tube light comes enclosed in the casing. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I live in Canada too and never use extra heat for my chickens creates moister problems that will kill your chickens!! There is quite a good section in here on how to get ready for winter you should read it!! Chickens even in the great white north should not need extra heat to survive!!

I have been reading on how to get my chickens ready for winter, my question was on lighting. not heating. Our winters are super cold and I prefer not to leave my chickens without some form of heat when we reach the negative 30's weather. My in-barn coop has excellent ventilation so I really won't have to worry about moisture. Going back to my questions which were can chickens see red light, such as the light emitted from the heat lamp and whats better fluorescent tube lights or compact (screw on) light bulbs.

 

[Imp]

Ema,

Chickens have better vision than people do. They can see all our colors and into the ultra violet range. (If memory serves correctly) So I guess they can see red light. If there are pecking issues red lights are supposed to reduce it. I use a regular 13 watt spiral CF in my coop. I used to use a 40 watt incandescent, but it burned out too quickly. I noticed no difference.

Imp

 

[Jeremy Parker]

Quote:
I live in Canada too and never use extra heat for my chickens creates moister problems that will kill your chickens!! There is quite a good section in here on how to get ready for winter you should read it!! Chickens even in the great white north should not need extra heat to survive!!

I have been reading on how to get my chickens ready for winter, my question was on lighting. not heating. Our winters are super cold and I prefer not to leave my chickens without some form of heat when we reach the negative 30's weather. My in-barn coop has excellent ventilation so I really won't have to worry about moisture. Going back to my questions which were can chickens see red light, such as the light emitted from the heat lamp and whats better fluorescent tube lights or compact (screw on) light bulbs.

Wow your kind of rude person if you look through your post you said about having heat on already?? We get get -30 temps to and my chickens do great never had an issue without heat!!If you turn heat on you will have moister issues no matter what, been raising chickens for a long time. If you would have taken your time and looked thru the forum you would have seen that red light does help to stop pecking so they must be able to see it!


I won't be commenting on posts you post in future don't like rude people and your on that list now!!

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
I will be adding a double timer myself to the coop this thanksgiving weekend (I'm in canada) and I was wondering something and hoping you or someone else knows...can chickens see red lights?? I have the hat lamp on 24/7 in their coop now that its getting quite chilly up here. I just wonder if they can see once I turn off the day lights!! Also my DH and I have been debating whats better a compact fluorescent light bulb or an 18 Watt tube light?? we just wonder which one would be safer and provide better lighting. the tube light comes enclosed in the casing. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I live in Canada too and never use extra heat for my chickens creates moister problems that will kill your chickens!! There is quite a good section in here on how to get ready for winter you should read it!! Chickens even in the great white north should not need extra heat to survive!!

South Mountain... Jeremy are you in Nova Scotia?

 

[Hillsvale]

Ema

I am in Nova Scotia and it can get cold here too. I ran under ground electrics to my coop (mostly for my convenience) I have a outside porch light, inside light and electrics plus and an outside gifi plug which someone (who remains nameless) was going to use to set me up with an electric fence...

I have the inside light on a timer which goes on at 5am and off at 7am (may be adjusted as the days get shorter) then on again early evening and shuts off at 9pm which I may change to an earlier time at some point, there is a dim blue night light as well. I may put a timer on their porch light as well since the coop is opened at 5am and there are lots of small stumps which act as tripping hazards.

Lots of people don't bother with extra lights and some with three sided coops even in our climate with no issues and to someone's point... what did they do in past years when there was no electrics available.

Because we don't get home until 6:30 or so and it will soon be dark I may end up running an extension to my turkey coop just to trigger the turkeys attention to go to bed... I have 12 and when they don't want to go in it can be a challenge... catching a blue slate tom in the dark can be interesting! lol

best wishes.

 

[Judy]

Back to the light question, my reading tells me lots of people use light and many more are opposed to doing so. Chickens are going to lay a fixed number of eggs per chicken, so if you increase the number during winter, you decrease the length of time they will lay. There is also the opinion that it is healthier for the chicken to let her lay at her natural rate, that they live longer, healthier lives when they get rests from moulting, short days, etc.


It's a personal choice. If I were going to do it, I'd do it morning only so at least they would have the natural end-of-day light. Also, I'd be afraid someone would get caught off the roost when the light went out at night. But I get more eggs than I need, and I'm not sure I'd choose to interrupt their natural cycles anyway.

 

[Hillsvale]

Quote:
You raise some good points... really our lights are for our convenience (for 4 or 5 months of the year I wouldn't see a hen! lol) but I haven't researched the "forced" laying as a result of un-natural light verses leaving them be and extending their laying months/years... interesting, thanks

 

[Ema]

thank you for answering my light questions. with the run door closed it gets kinda dusky in my barn so I needed to put light in there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
We all have different goals and different set-ups. I don't know what your coop looks like, but it doesn't take a lot of light to keep them laying. If you can barely read a newspaper in the coop, you have enough light. You can save some money by using lower wattage bulbs.

The basic idea behind the extra light is that the "natural" cycle for a hen is that she lays and hatches eggs during the spring and summer when raising the chicks is easier. Then, in the fall they quit laying eggs and use their energy to grow new feathers to replace the ones that have become worn or broken. We've domesticated the chickens so a lot of them don't follow the "natural" cycle exactly anymore, but the basic instincts are still there for most of them. The signal for them to stop laying and start molting is that the days get shorter. We all live at different latitudes so how much shorter the days have to get to start a molt is probably different for all of us and probably differs by chicken too. Mine don't all start to molt at the same time. Usually there is two or three weeks difference in when they start.

The commercial operations have learned to control egg laying by controlling the light. They keep the pullets from starting to lay too young by keeping them under a reduced lighting plan, long nights and short days. Then, when they are old enough to lay commercial sized eggs, they increase the lights to 14 hours of light a day with 10 hours of darkness. They have determined that this is the most efficient period of light to get the most good quality eggs. They are not only looking at the number of eggs but the quality and size of those eggs and the feed to egg conversion rate. It is not so much that they have to have 14 hours of daylight to lay. Chickens that live on the equator don't get that and they lay fine. If you live far enough from the equator to get 20 hours of daylight in the summer, a drop to only 14 hours of light may trigger a molt and they will quit laying. I really don't know what the magic number is where you use natural daylight instead of controlling the environment for 10,000 laying hens in one building.

Chickens need some period of darkness. If you look at the Egg Quality Handbook (you can Google it if you wish) certain egg defects can be caused by too much light. Just like me, chickens need some sleep. Constant light is not the best for them.

Chickens occasionally need to go through a molt to recharge their system. Their frequency of laying and the quality of the eggs will drop if they go too long without a molt. The egg size and quality also improves after a molt. Commercial operations will force a molt after the hens have reached a sufficient age to improve the frequency, size, and quality of the eggs. After the first adult molt, the egg frequency, size and quality inproves. After each following adult molt, the size and quality may improve a little but the average laying frequency drops about 15%. This will vary by individual hen, but if you have enough hens for the averages to mean anything, the flock average will drop about 15% after each subsequent adult molt. While a hen has a certain number of eggs to lay in her lifetime, do you want to feed and house a hen that is 5 or 6 years old and maybe laying one egg a week or less? Many people do. That goes back to us having different goals. Many people rotate new layers into their flock and remove the older hens to increase the feed to eggs conversion efficiency.

It is not unusual for pullets that start to lay in the summer or early fall to skip the molt their first winter and keep laying all winter regardless of whether you provide extra light or not. Some do. Some don't. Right now, all my April Fools Day hatch pullets are laying about every day. My adults are pretty much all molting and I get less than one adult egg a day.

Hope this helps some. Good luck!

 

[Jeremy Parker]

Quote:
I live in Canada too and never use extra heat for my chickens creates moister problems that will kill your chickens!! There is quite a good section in here on how to get ready for winter you should read it!! Chickens even in the great white north should not need extra heat to survive!!

South Mountain... Jeremy are you in Nova Scotia?

Ontario ! Coldest last year was -35C was a warm winter though over all!