Lighting question for adult chickens

[vastplains]

I am being told that chickens require 12 hours of light for maximum health and to keep egg laying at the maximum. The thinking is also that that show chickens will eat better as well. I am being told that research backs this thinking. In light of that (pun intended), we have large led lighting shining on them for upwards of 16 hours a day.

I have had chickens for years and think the healthiest thing is to let nature determine lighting. That being said, I have seen coops that are dark and dungeon like. That is not our set up. We have lots of white walls, windows and mostly open doors during the day for them to come and go from. My thinking is that this is stressful for an animal that is very sensitive to light hours that determine their cycles.

Can someone please correct me with links to good research or tell me otherwise. I would like this settled once and for all and so would my power company.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If you want increased production than add extra lighting during the darker months. Otherwise let them go through a nature cycle, and rest period during the coldest and darkest part of the year.

I personally think the second one, no lighting, is more healthy, and allows more time for recovery. It's the best for pet chickens. The first option, extra lighting, is done when people butcher out older hens when laying decreases after 2-3 years of production so they can get new stock in. Most egg producers do this.

It just depends on how you view your birds, and your choice in husbandry.

I am being told that chickens require 12 hours of light for maximum health and to keep egg laying at the maximum. The thinking is also that that show chickens will eat better as well. I am being told that research backs this thinking. In light of that (pun intended), we have large led lighting shining on them for upwards of 16 hours a day.

I have had chickens for years and think the healthiest thing is to let nature determine lighting. That being said, I have seen coops that are dark and dungeon like. That is not our set up. We have lots of white walls, windows and mostly open doors during the day for them to come and go from. My thinking is that this is stressful for an animal that is very sensitive to light hours that determine their cycles.

Can someone please correct me with links to good research or tell me otherwise. I would like this settled once and for all and so would my power company.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll start out as I often do. What are your goals for your flock? What kind of flock do you have? Are you a commercial egg farmer, raise commercial meat, raise show chickens, have pets, want eye candy, have a dual purpose flock, want them for bug patrol, or something else? You don't need to tell me, you need to tell yourself so you know your goals. I don't have any research for most of this, to research something you have to determine what you are researching. Somebody raising show chickens may have totally different goals than someone raising them commercially for eggs. Research into one may not be much help for the other. Somebody has to pay for research. The commercial operations do that for their methods, try raising money to research some of the other goals.

I'll tackle the commercial egg layers because they or the commercial meat industry have the most research. You often see on here that chickens need 16 hours of daylight to lay eggs. That's total nonsense. I've had plenty of hens and pullets lay a lot of eggs in winter on natural light with days as short as 10 hours. A lot of those lay 5 or 6 eggs a week. So chickens do not require 12, 14 or 16 hours a day to lay really well.

They do need a certain amount of dark downtime to recharge their batteries, much as we need sleep. Some need more dark downtime than others, same as some people need more sleep than others.

The commercial egg operations know to the gram how much feed each individual hen needs for egg production and good health. That's another fallacy you often see on here, that they starve their chickens so they have to spend as little as possible on them. Animals need to be healthy to produce at their best, whether that is chickens, cattle, or anything else. Profit margins are tight so they cannot waste feed but they need to make sure they get enough feed. Many people keeping animals as pets aren't happy unless their pets are overfed.

So commercial chicken operations have devised methods to ensure that each hen gets what she needs and not more. So they make sure there is enough room at the feeders for every hen to eat at the same time. Then, they release a certain amount of feed in the feeders after they all wake up and limit that feed to the amount they can clean up with no leftovers. Then, after a certain amount of time so they are all hungry again they release another carefully measured amount. This keeps the food hogs from hogging all of the feed. They keep doing this throughout the day until the hens have all had how much they need. That usually works out to about 16 hours of light. So the 16 hours is not because they have to have 16 hours of light, it is just that 16 hours works with the way they manage them.

I use natural light as that works best for my goals (and is less work, which also works for my goals). Others extend the hours of light to stop them from molting so they lay more. Lots of different ways to manage them. What way is best depends a lot on your goals and may be totally different from me or @oldhenlikesdogs

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'll start out as I often do. What are your goals for your flock? What kind of flock do you have? Are you a commercial egg farmer, raise commercial meat, raise show chickens, have pets, want eye candy, have a dual purpose flock, want them for bug patrol, or something else? You don't need to tell me, you need to tell yourself so you know your goals. I don't have any research for most of this, to research something you have to determine what you are researching. Somebody raising show chickens may have totally different goals than someone raising them commercially for eggs. Research into one may not be much help for the other. Somebody has to pay for research. The commercial operations do that for their methods, try raising money to research some of the other goals.

I'll tackle the commercial egg layers because they or the commercial meat industry have the most research. You often see on here that chickens need 16 hours of daylight to lay eggs. That's total nonsense. I've had plenty of hens and pullets lay a lot of eggs in winter on natural light with days as short as 10 hours. A lot of those lay 5 or 6 eggs a week. So chickens do not require 12, 14 or 16 hours a day to lay really well.

They do need a certain amount of dark downtime to recharge their batteries, much as we need sleep. Some need more dark downtime than others, same as some people need more sleep than others.

The commercial egg operations know to the gram how much feed each individual hen needs for egg production and good health. That's another fallacy you often see on here, that they starve their chickens so they have to spend as little as possible on them. Animals need to be healthy to produce at their best, whether that is chickens, cattle, or anything else. Profit margins are tight so they cannot waste feed but they need to make sure they get enough feed. Many people keeping animals as pets aren't happy unless their pets are overfed.

So commercial chicken operations have devised methods to ensure that each hen gets what she needs and not more. So they make sure there is enough room at the feeders for every hen to eat at the same time. Then, they release a certain amount of feed in the feeders after they all wake up and limit that feed to the amount they can clean up with no leftovers. Then, after a certain amount of time so they are all hungry again they release another carefully measured amount. This keeps the food hogs from hogging all of the feed. They keep doing this throughout the day until the hens have all had how much they need. That usually works out to about 16 hours of light. So the 16 hours is not because they have to have 16 hours of light, it is just that 16 hours works with the way they manage them.

I use natural light as that works best for my goals (and is less work, which also works for my goals). Others extend the hours of light to stop them from molting so they lay more. Lots of different ways to manage them. What way is best depends a lot on your goals and may be totally different from me or @oldhenlikesdogs

I never fail to learn from you, RR! But now I feel like I need to go through my whole BYC history and correct all the errors I've perpetrated! Thanks for the education. I'll stop perpetuating the 14-hour myth.

 

[vastplains]

Thank you for your replies! This gives us some good talking points. We have pets and show chickens. That is all. There is no need for maximum production here and ,if there were, we would have production type hens anyway. Hopefully we can reach a compromise.