- May 2, 2009
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Well, our 9 week old pullets are now outside, living happily in their coop/free range during some days. This is what I've read about hours of daylight required to stimulate egg production and I was wondering what your routine is, if you have a routine at all?
6 to 20 weeks: 8-10 hours
19 weeks increase to 12 hours to stimulate egg production
20 weeks increase to 16 hours of daylight. They should start laying at this time.
We get about 13 -14 hours of natural daylight right now (6:30am- ~7:30 -8 p.m), even though it's still light out enough to see earlier and later than that.
Of course providing light after dark is not a problem...
The problem is, how dark is dark? Does the inside of the coop need to be completely dark? To block out daylight after 10 hours, that would be closing them up at 4:30p.m.! I can't imagine doing that in the heat of the summer; the afternoons are hot!
Or we could do 8 am to 6 pm., but it's stilll light out before and after this, and still hot.
So is this something we need to be concerned with, or just not worry about it, and they will still lay? What if we happen to break the cycle now and then and can't close them at the appropriate time?
I can't wait to get feedback!
Thanks!!!
6 to 20 weeks: 8-10 hours
19 weeks increase to 12 hours to stimulate egg production
20 weeks increase to 16 hours of daylight. They should start laying at this time.
We get about 13 -14 hours of natural daylight right now (6:30am- ~7:30 -8 p.m), even though it's still light out enough to see earlier and later than that.
Of course providing light after dark is not a problem...
The problem is, how dark is dark? Does the inside of the coop need to be completely dark? To block out daylight after 10 hours, that would be closing them up at 4:30p.m.! I can't imagine doing that in the heat of the summer; the afternoons are hot!
Or we could do 8 am to 6 pm., but it's stilll light out before and after this, and still hot.
So is this something we need to be concerned with, or just not worry about it, and they will still lay? What if we happen to break the cycle now and then and can't close them at the appropriate time?
I can't wait to get feedback!
Thanks!!!