Do I need a light for my chicken coop?

Thank you for the information. I cannot free range without me watching, so it's pretty much limited to an hour before dark a few days a week. I did read the articles aart and you provided, they were extremely helpful. I will probably skip this year and maybe a few more in terms of light, it appears that they will not need it and will simply add more complications. I plan on getting more chickens a year from now, and maybe follow the plan that your article laid out. I will try making your feeder, it seems like an ingenious idea! Thanks again to all of you.
I don't know anything about your set-up or how much space you have for your birds, but sounds like you may need to keep turkeys and chickens separate. Also sounds like your original question about lighting is actually about getting the most production out of your chickens, and lighting may not be the answer in your case. It's really about maintaining their health and providing
... free access to a good ration, and oyster shells to optimize production. Limiting feed will limit laying. It takes a lot to produce those eggs...
a good amount of nutrition with little waste. Correct?

Back to the links I promised you:
There's lots of feeder ideas here, but I like this one. In my area, at Home Depot, the black plumbing accessories are ABS and more expensive. I use the white PVC... same result, just be sure to use that extra length where the chickens put their head --THAT makes it no-spill. My original version didn't have that and I had to add some duct tape to keep the feed inside.
20180703_131049.jpg
A cheap easy version for this feeder is to just use a plastic drinking cup to block off the bottom.
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Another food-bill-saver is growing sprouts or fodder. This is a system I'm very interested in and plan to do it myself soon.
Here's a good place to start How to Sprout Grains.
Fodder System -not as expensive as most systems that cost thousands, and with a good explanation of benefit.
Growing Fodder CHEAPLY

You may also want to look into the deep litter method. It requires a lot of bedding material (6-12 inches deep, added over time) but is a good way to entertain and supplement chickens. They spend their days scratching away and pooping, which eventually starts to compost, which allows bugs, worms and beneficial organisms to come and provide the chickens some tasty and nutritional snacks. Do not use DE (diatomaceous earth) in deep litter, it will kill all the bugs you're trying to invite. People use it, I guess, to keep the smell down? Though DE could be appropriate in a dust bath area. In my situation, I change the litter once a year, move the old to my compost bin until the next spring, then spread it in my garden beds and around my other landscape -- by then it's turned into beautiful rich dark soil. It's a very efficient no-waste rotation. Instead of buying litter, you could use leaves and grass clippings etc. as long as it's untreated.

The unfortunate reality of any really efficient and productive form of maintenance, is that it will require some investment to start with and may take some time and effort to pay for itself... whether it be no-spill containers, lots of bedding, a large predator-proof run (if free ranging isn't a viable option) or a fodder system. But in the long run, would be well worth the initial investment!
:loveI wish you luck in figuring out what works best for you!
 
Thank you! My turkeys and chickens get along fine, no fights and we don't have blackhead. I do have a large run, it is 8 by 10. This was the initial investment to build. Yes, the question of light was to keep productivity at its max, but it looks like I won't need it. I will not need any more information, I have been helped with the light issue and my turkey along with additional things to keep my birds healthy and happy. Thanks once again!
 
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@LikeTurkeys, I admit I haven't read this whole thread so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I wanted to tell you I was amazed by the number of eggs I collected from my girls during their first winter! I don't expect that to repeat again this winter but I do have a couple of breeds where winter doesn't appear to damper their laying much. I've read (sorry I don't have a resource for that information) that many breeds lay through their first winter.

Also, don't assume your chickens won't molt their first fall/winter either. I kept telling mine that they hadn't read the manual and that this (molt) wasn't supposed to happen the first year! It got to the point where I felt so sorry for my Buff Orpington! She stayed warm only by squashing her roost mate and sticking her head under its body!

I personally chose to follow nature and allow my girls to rest during the winter and not force them to lay with added lighting in the morning.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy your chickens! They are a lot of fun!
 
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If your hens are just starting laying they won't be molting this fall. They will molt the second fall. I have 3 that just started laying and I am hoping they will lay all winter when the others are molting and taking a break.
 
Oh my goodness, there's many possible reasons for a lapse in laying... but I don't think you should worry just yet.
It's great they have free access to feed now:woot
Are they eating strictly layer? with oyster shell? and plenty of fresh water? If so, no worries, though an all flock feed will have more protein to help replenish their systems. I'm no expert at all, but I think her body is still adjusting to the nutritional change. And she's still new to laying and sometimes it takes time to settle into regular schedule.
Try here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/our-pullet-started-laying-then-stopped.1115170/
and another article:
https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/7-reasons-why-your-chickens-stopped-laying-eggs/
If she's eating, socializing and acting normal, all should be fine and your girls will start laying regularly pretty soon :D
 
They're eating layer. No oyster shell yet, I'll get it when I get the next bag of feed. Plenty of fresh water, I change it every day. She stopped before I started feeding her layer though. I hope these breaks don't happen too often though because I got chickens mainly for the eggs. Next spring I'm going to get some Leghorns!
 
Yeah, it does seem to take forever for them to get to laying! Especially when you're starting with chicks. How old are they now? Hopefully they were at least 16-18wks when put on layer feed. I think you're doing everything great to get them back on track!

Leghorns sound like a better bet for what you want. Maybe next time you could start with pullets at Point of Lay?... little more expensive than chicks, but will start producing eggs for you 5-6 months sooner than babies. So many factors to take into account... figuring out the best production/feed ratio... an ongoing battle for a lot of folks. One of these days it'll all come together for you. I wish you the best!
 
The Rhode Island Red (Ginger) is 26 weeks (I'm pretty sure anyway). I got some black leghorns along with three other Rhode Island Red's but they died as chicks because of sun exposure. Only Ginger survived. I cried so hard after that, I thought it was all my fault. So then we went to Kahoots and the lady there said that BO lay the best and she didn't have any leg horns anyway. The BO are 17 weeks old. I heard that they lay later than other birds, 24 weeks or something like that? So pretty much that's how I wound up with 1 RIR and 4 BO and a confused up idea of who lays the best.
 

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