Artificial light

[NestingMillenial]

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 know this is a bit of an older thread but really interesting information here: among those using artificial lighting, do you all do something like what Aart describes, to allow for molting?
-> Aart makes it sound as if maybe the delay in molting was due to birds not being used to artificial lighting yet: would you expect them to molt through it as long as they have always known supplemental lighting?
-> If not, would that mean refraining from using supplemental lighting until they start (or finish?) molting, then starting artificial lighting in increments (for example adding 20min in the morning every week until... well I have seen threads here saying 12H is enough, but up to 15H according to this article by a vet: https://the-chicken-chick.com/supplemental-light-in-coop-why-how/)

I live in Southern AZ, even our longest day is barely 14H, so I'd have to supplement all year round to maintain them at 14-15H. What do people in southern latitudes do?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Several folks in this thread said "never" add light in the evening, only in the morning. But for the last two years that's exactly what I've done, added light in the evenings. And it's worked for me. I only do it after all my birds have finished molting and have had a month or two to rest. So, about the beginning of February I have started adding a little light in the evenings until they are getting 12-hour "days." Why not in the mornings? A couple reasons. One, I am not, repeat NOT an early-morning person. Two, I don't have water in the coop and they need to drink before they can eat. Especially no water on frosty days. Three, early morning predators. Well, that's not a problem really. They're not coming out of the hen house in the dark anyway so we don't open the coop up early. So to my mind it doesn't much matter whether their supplemental light comes in the morning or evening. Either way, they're going to be huddled up safely on the roosts in the hen house talking to each other.