Chicken house light for shorter days

[cbourbeau32]

I'm planning to put a light in my henhouse so that when the days begin to get shorter I will still have enough light for them to continue to lay. Does anyone do this with a light that doesn't have a plug in or require an extension cord? I've thought about a lamp with rechargeable batteries but the thought of changing batteries daily or at least very often doesn't appeal to me. I've thought about solar powered lights but not sure how they do when you have several days in a row of overcast conditions. Anyone else doing something like what I'm thinking or have something better?

Thanks, Charlie

 

[aart]

I started ramping up the lights a month or so ago to keep them above 14 hours.
Supplemental lighting should be ramped up slowly and maintained consistently.

Timer turns on lights in early morning, chickens go to roost with natural sunset.
Have a heavy duty extension cord running from a GFCI for lights and water heater in the coop.

Not sure you can do a timer with solar or batteries...and a timer is essential.

If you have first year layers (hatched this spring) you may not need supplemental light this year.
Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.