Artificial light

[Apis mellifera]

Artificial light also shortens a chicken’s life span.

Not mine, I have hens that are 8 years old. You are confusing industrial ag with backyard chickens. Adding a couple of hours of light never harmed my hens. 24 hrs. of light may harm them like battery hens, I don't know.

I have heard of some cases where people used lights over the course of winter and the hen lived for only 2 yrs.

Hearing something is just anecdotal evidence. It could just as likely have been caused by poor care and breeding. Probably both.

So if you want your chicken to lay eggs for longer, let them lay naturally.

I'm not going to let my hens sit in the dark. Even in your area during the winter your chickens will have days that they have to sit in the cold dark for over 12 hours. To me, that's cruel and unhealthy.

It is healthier for them and also from what I have heard, eggs that are laid naturally without artificial light, taste better.

Not true.

 

[Apis mellifera]

Lighting can be fine if managed properly.
They need a rest, they need to molt.
But I use lights in early winter after the molt is over.

First year I had them on fall and winter, the older birds I started with laid all winter but molted in the spring.

I agree, but for some reason a lot of people think letting hens and a roo sit in the cold dark is somehow healthy and restful.

 

[Possum-Pie]

I knew this would be controversial. Hens/roos sitting in the dark is what every animal does in nature. They don't need light to play poker or read a book.
Research has shown that forcing hens to lay using artificial light can lead to ovarian cancer and other reproductive issues including lash eggs. It also hampers recovery from molting and ability to stave off winter diseases.
Producing an egg is physically stressful. The energy to develop the yolk, produce albumen, create a shell, push it down and out of the hen could be better used to stay warm in the winter.
My chickens are NOT my pets, I don't name them, but I care about their wellbeing since they do supply my family with eggs. I generally begin stocking up on their eggs in my garage fridge all summer, so in the late fall/winter when we get limited/no eggs we have all we need. Without washing them, they will store 4 months or more in a fridge, more than enough time to get me through their "rest period."

 

[Apis mellifera]

I knew this would be controversial.
Research has shown that forcing hens to lay using artificial light can lead to ovarian cancer and other reproductive issues including lash eggs.

Maybe in an industrial setting with 24 hrs of light and hens that are bred for laying. Not mine or most backyarders.

There is NO artificial light in the wild, so domestic chickens don't just sit in a dark coop all winter wishing a light was on so they could play poker.
When using artificial light, they still come in the coop around dusk, then just sit on the roosts.

You never add light in the evening. You add it in the morning.

Some try to sleep with their heads under their wings, some just sit and stare at each other. Regardless of the information/misinformation in this thread, producing an egg is physically stressful. The energy to develop the yolk, produce albumen, create a shell, push it down and out of the hen could be better used to stay warm in the winter.

My chickens aren't wild. We will have to agree to disagree.

 

[Possum-Pie]

Maybe in an industrial setting with 24 hrs of light and hens that are bred for laying. Not mine or most backyarders.

You never add light in the evening. You add it in the morning.

My chickens aren't wild. We will have to agree to disagree.

Yes, let's agree to disagree.

 

[Apis mellifera]

I knew this would be controversial. Hens/roos sitting in the dark is what every animal does in nature.

Hens and roos in the NE aren't natural.

 

[Possum-Pie]

Hens and roos in the NE aren't natural.

I agree. Northern N.Y. state is not their "natural" habitat. They have been so interbred for "desirable" traits such as increased egg laying and size that there is not much left of them that is "natural". It seems you're trying to look after their best interest, rather then exploit a few extra eggs, so I don't think we disagree as much as it seems we do.

 

[Love Donkeys]

The large Breeder houses in our area have their lights on timers. The hens (60,000+) and roosters (5,000+) in those houses produce fertile eggs. Then eggs are incubated and the chicks will go to Broiler houses to be grown for meat....

Most of the BYC people, like me, have Chickens as pets or friends. I have a small solar light in our walk-in coop, it's been there for years. When the solar battery runs out of power the coop is in darkness until daybreak....

If the Chickens want to lay or not lay eggs it's all right with me. After all they are my friends....

 

[tripletfeb]

I used to have a light in my coop through the winter. It was on a timer and I would change the time so the light would come on earlier by an hour a week. By the darkest part of the winter, it would come on at 3:00 am. I let the sun going down put the chickens to bed in the evenings. I did enjoy the extra eggs I would get during the winter. I have since stopped using a light in winter because I do like to give the girls a rest. I now water glass their eggs so I always have some to eat during the winter. OP, if you decide to use a light, there is no problem with that, just have it come on in the morning. We all do what is best for our own flock and what someone else does is not what I do, nothing wrong with either way

 

[avjudge]

Two of the 3 winters we've had chickens we had youngsters just coming into lay that fall (2021, 2023) who laid through the winter, but the in-between year with just 1.5-yo hens we ended up letting them stop naturally in late fall 2022, then introduced morning light sometime in the winter (late January 2023, I think) to get them started up a little early. So a compromise between letting them follow their natural schedule and keeping them going all winter - giving them a break but shorter than would be natural at our latitude (44.4°N). I think we will probably do the same this winter.

They will lay with somewhat less than 12 hours' light - at least some will. I just had a 3.5-yo hen stop with just under 11 hours (she molted early and resumed laying 6.5 weeks ago), and she and one other (who we lost during the summer) started up naturally around Feb 20 of this year, at about 10 hrs 40 min of daylight. (We didn't add light last winter because our 2023 pullets laid through the winter without it.)