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With all due respect to Cynthia, someone I respect a lot (and would consider a friend even though we've never met) and have agreed with her almost always, I would have to disagree with the above.
At one time, years ago, I kept a light on in the coop all night long. Then I found out about the $5 timers you can get at
Wal-Mart. The birds need 14 hours of light and I keep mine on 15.
From everything I've read, chickens typically lay on a 25-hour cycle. They are born with the # of eggs they will lay in their lifetime. I have never, not one single time, ever experience any problems whatsoever with my birds laying year around. Most on here know that I raise, breed, and show Amercaucanas and Welsummers. I'll be adding Barnevelders next year. (One of my Welsummer cockerels just took Best Continental and one of my Barnie cockerels took Reserve Continental). However, I have several hatchery breeds running around as barnyard fowl to keep me in eggs for my customers while I have the aforementioned in breeding pens. Again, I've had NO problems whatsoever with any of my birds laying all year round.
I'm no expert and don't even want to pretend to be. So if there is some good, hard evidence that it's not good for a bird to lay year 'round, I'd gladly be interested in reading it but most of us who breed and show are getting eggs for sale and for hatching long before there is ever 14 hours of daylight. If it were bad on the birds, there would be a whole lot less eggs and chicks being shipped in January through April.
I don't believe anyone has addressed this and it's probably because it's common-sense but just in case anyone has the question, I think we all know that chicks, ducks, and other animals for that matter (including humans) don't need darkness to sleep.
God Bless,
