DaCrazyHouse
In the Brooder
New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....
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New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....
Early morning is better.New guy here .....is it better to run the lights early or at dusk.......Iam in tTexas and currently have mine running 5 pm til 8 pm ish seems like nothing has changed much here.....
The amount of Sun light a hen is exposed to is how she tells the time of year. So yes your hens think it is Spring time, the normal or natural time of the year for hens to produce offspring and to make babies hens MUST lay eggs. Why not get a purposely bred breed of laying hen? These chickens never or almost never go broody. This will up your egg production by maybe 30%. A good breed of layer will be 85% productive or better as a mature hen. 50 layers X 85% = 42.5 eggs daily. Even better during the spring months.It could be that you aren't giving them enough light.. I sold most of my 1 1/2 year old layers in Sept, what I have left is about 10 of the older girls and 30+ pullets who started laying the end of Sept and the last few should start the end of this month. We decided this year to add a light to the coop and I have been very happy with the results. I never added light before so I asked around to find out what they needed. We have a 60 watt bulb that I turn on at 3 pm and turn off at 8-9 am.. They need 16 hours of light to remain productive, now, this did not stop my older (1 1/2 year olds) from molting but it has greatly increased the amount of eggs laid daily. I have around 50 layers and I gathered 32 eggs yesterday... One drawback, I have girls still going broody, I hadn't ever had this happen so I believe its the lighting.
The amount of Sun light a hen is exposed to is how she tells the time of year. So yes your hens think it is Spring time, the normal or natural time of the year for hens to produce offspring and to make babies hens MUST lay eggs. Why not get a purposely bred breed of laying hen? These chickens never or almost never go broody. This will up your egg production by maybe 30%. A good breed of layer will be 85% productive or better as a mature hen. 50 layers X 85% = 42.5 eggs daily. Even better during the spring months.