Artificial Lights v/s None During Winter for Egg Production Poll

[BigBlueHen53]

Poor Winnie!

Have you seen her? I posted her in the Ugly Molt thread (it's not called that, but it should be.) Here she is. She is normally my prettiest bird!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Have you seen her? I posted her in the Ugly Molt thread (it's not called that, but it should be.) Here she is. She is normally my prettiest bird!

View attachment 4237950

Aww, poor girl!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Ok, apparently I have to describe.

As the days shorten, especially when Daylight Savings ends, I’m hoping to have enough light in the run to encourage them to stay up and mess around a bit, maybe do their part toward turning over the deep litter for a change!

The coop is a Nestera sitting on a raised platform (no room for lights in there!) plus an open-air L-shaped out door roost, so we really have more of an open-air coop+run. A crun. Or a roop. So anyway, there’s 120 sq ft for five pullets to hang out in, doing their chicken things, and enough lighting to allow them to do so.

That’s the plan, anyway. Civil dawn (when it’s light out, but the sun isn’t over the horizon, which is called sunrise) + 12 hours. I doubt the lighting will be bright enough to influence lighting, but I’d love not having to slog out at 6 a.m. in 35° to let them out.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

crun. Or a roop.

To extend their "daylight" hours enough to get them to lay, bright lights are not required. I have heard that even a night light will do. Just enough light to enable them to see by. The light that I provide is significantly brighter than that, but I understand it really is not necessary.
I do not use a brilliantly bright LED light that would temporarily blind you, just something along the lines of about a 25-watt indoor/outdoor incandescent light bulb. Like what we used to use on the front porch, remember those? In the dark of night it seems plenty bright, though.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

To extend their "daylight" hours enough to get them to lay, bright lights are not required. I have heard that even a night light will do. Just enough light to enable them to see by. The light that I provide is significantly brighter than that, but I understand it really is not necessary.
I do not use a brilliantly bright LED light that would temporarily blind you, just something along the lines of about a 25-watt indoor/outdoor incandescent light bulb. Like what we used to use on the front porch, remember those? In the dark of night it seems plenty bright, though.

That’s interesting! I didn’t realize that even a single Edison bulb would affect laying.

I really want my girls to take a break - the EE is a daily layer, and among the three of them we still average 18/week, but man, darkness at 5:20 is painful.

 

[BoundlessLove]

Have you seen her? I posted her in the Ugly Molt thread (it's not called that, but it should be.) Here she is. She is normally my prettiest bird!

View attachment 4237950

Poor girl. She looks like two miles of bad road.

 

[NatJ]

That’s interesting! I didn’t realize that even a single Edison bulb would affect laying.

I really want my girls to take a break - the EE is a daily layer, and among the three of them we still average 18/week, but man, darkness at 5:20 is painful.

A rule of thumb I saw years ago: if there is enough light for a person to read a newspaper, that is light enough to affect egg laying. One light bulb in a chicken coop will often provide that much light.

I don't know what data that was based on, but obviously starlight and moonlight are not enough to keep hens laying, so there must exist some amount of light that is too dim to count.

 

[Folly's place]

I do have a light on in one section of my coop, and that's where all my birds want to roost, although they have two other roost locations, not lit. One 25w bulb up high on a timer, 4am to 8am every morning, all winter.
The little darlings are mostly through their fall molt, and some hens haven't been laying eggs for several months anyway. I don't eliminate hens just because they no longer produce eggs, as long as they feel healthy, so poor total flock egg production reflects that.
Our five month old pullets are coming into lay, fortunately, so we are getting some eggs, but not many.
There's a big difference between lights on 24/7, and extending light th 14 hours/ day.
Mary

 

[BoundlessLove]

I do have a light on in one section of my coop, and that's where all my birds want to roost, although they have two other roost locations, not lit. One 25w bulb up high on a timer, 4am to 8am every morning, all winter.
The little darlings are mostly through their fall molt, and some hens haven't been laying eggs for several months anyway. I don't eliminate hens just because they no longer produce eggs, as long as they feel healthy, so poor total flock egg production reflects that.
Our five month old pullets are coming into lay, fortunately, so we are getting some eggs, but not many.
There's a big difference between lights on 24/7, and extending light th 14 hours/ day.
Mary

We cull when the egg production slows way down.
I try to raise a new flock every 2 years. This way I always have two separate flocks at all times that have their own coops.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

There's a big difference between lights on 24/7, and extending light th 14 hours/ day.

Hear! Hear!