Advice on Extending Daylight Hours?

[Lilorp14]

So I have never done artificial light with my hens before, but I'm trying to make a little money off of their eggs this year and therefore I'd like to start using it. I'm also going to start breeding my chickens, beginning in January, so I'll need it for that too. I've just got a few questions.

• Can you just slap the light on all of a sudden and add 4 hours of daylight without any consequences or do you need to ease them into it?
• Does it damage the health of the hens in any way?
• I've heard that it should be turned on early in the morning instead of in the evening. Is that true?

Any other tips or tricks would be highly appreciated!

Thanks,

-T

 

[Yus745]

I agree with turning on your light early in the morning and think i pure daylight chickens should have 14hrs out

 

[RWise]

I use lights in the winter, Adding light to give them 13.5 hours daily. I turn them on in the A.M. as in the evening they take their clue to roost from the sun.
13.5 hours is where most of my girls start firing, you may need a bit more for your birds. It does shorten their life span, as I have read, they are hatched with only so many eggs they can lay in their life. My oldest girl is 8 YO and still gives an egg from time to time.
I would suggest adding a few minutes (like 15 minutes) of light at a time and work up from there.
I ise this site to track the daily light;
https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/tulsa

 

[aart]

Supplemental lighting it tricky and complex.
It's not like 'flipping a switch' haha!
I've tried various scenarios with inconclusive results,
tho I believe that I got more eggs than if I hadn't used any extra lighting.

Increasing light all at once has less adverse effects than decreasing it all at once.

Damage, ehhh..
It can be hard on their bodies to continuously lay instead of having that winter break to replenish feathers and physiology, it will affect some birds more detrmientally than others.
They are born with way more ova than they could ever turn into eggs, so it's not like they'll 'run out', if their bodies are healthy enough to do so(see sentence above).
It can interrupt the molt....have had them molt anyway and/or molt in the spring...or not molt so they look pretty ragged.

I prefer to have lights come on early, others have some extra light in morning and some at night with decent results. Cock/erels crowing at 2am can be a bummer.