Convince me not to extend daylight hours.

[ivan3]

We've kept 15w, in reflector, aimed to ceiling (indirect) during the winters 24/7. This provides them the opportunity to move around during the early morning but doesn't interfere with roosting behavior or contribute to agitation or picking (can assess by vocalizations with coop monitor). Wouldn't want to keep them in such a low light environment during the day as that would probably lead to blindness. Ours are production RSLs/BSLs. During the first two years they laid like clock work regardless of `lighting', and now they've fallen back to a more seasonal and less productive schedule. Some evidence (at least in even more seasonal layers like turkeys) that altering lighting can have some interesting effects not related to egg laying:

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/magazine/spring05/night.htm

 

[welsummer4]

Thanks everyone! I'm convinced. I will not give them supplemental light. I really appreciate all the great info.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Oh WOW, that is a great article! Thanks for sharing it with us.

There will be no supplemental light here!

 

[ivan3]

Final paragraphs made it worth the read:

It seems that 3 to 5 percent of turkey hens develop spontaneous ovarian tumors. Siopes first noticed the cancers a number of years ago when doing necropsies on turkeys. When he confirmed the masses he found in some of his birds were cancerous tumors, Siopes decided to see whether photoperiod had any effect on the cancers.

What he found was startling. By adjusting photoperiod for a shorter day length, Siopes was able to eradicate tumors. When he put the turkeys whose tumors had completely disappeared back on longer days, the tumors returned.

"We can literally make these cancers disappear and reappear by manipulating photoperiod," Siopes says. He's also found that melatonin injections will slow tumor development. Moore, the former graduate student who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Lineberger Cancer Center, contributed to Siopes' cancer studies.

This line of research raises some intriguing questions. For example, do mammals exhibit similar behavior? If so, might photoperiod and/or melatonin adjustment be used as part of a cancer treatment for humans?

Siopes isn't close to answering either question, but he does think that turkeys might be used as a model system, as is already the case with chickens, to study human ovarian cancer.​

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Quote:
Actually, I'd prefer you set me up that way.

This calls for a Kliban.

 

[HeritageHens]

Quote:
That is exactly what I do! I turn a low wattage light on at 6am because I'm not up that early which allows them to get food and water in their coop. The light only stays on until 8am when I'm able to let them out of the coop. If I were up earlier, it would be light for part of that time anyway so this is really a convenience for me. I've seen my girls go to bed as early as 2:30 so being deprived of food and water for up to 18 hours is too much IMHO.

One thing I don't do is extend the light in the evening. Someone here made a point that stuck with me; if you have the light on in the evening and then it suddenly turns off, the chickens may or may not be on the roosts. I let them go to bed naturally but give them a little extra light in the morning only.

 

[Beekissed]

Wow!!! That article was something else! I wonder if they have parlayed any of that research into the human realm and how daylight/sunlight hours relate to ovarian tumors in women?