Does not having lights affect productivity?

[ralleia]

Fred's Hens :

There is one problem with light timers, in trying to get 14 hours of light in the winter. If it clicks off at say 7 pm, they can be plunged into darkness and may still have to find their way to their roosts. They are pretty smart and start "retiring" at around 5 pm in the winter, but just FYI.

That's why mine comes on at 4 a.m. and turns off at 9 a.m., when the sun is already up. I let the sun turn the light down naturally on the tail end of the day.

Lisa--what color and wattage of light? And why are you leaving it on?​

 

[Fred's Hens]

Why?

Take people for example. Don't you rest better sleeping in the dark? Even a little light is an irritant. That's just me. In nature, it is truly dark at night.

 

[schellie69]

This last winter I used no extra light because the winter before even using the red light I found my girls up at midnight or other strange times. This last winter I did not use lighting I had no eggs but that was okay they got down time which I have heard is good for hatchery hens since they are less likely to go broody I do not want any egg laying issues. I might use a timer next winter we will see I agree chickens need darkness to sleep well this last winer I had no pecking issues like the winter before either. Each year I learn more.

 

[Lisa202]

It's one of those tiny light bulbs, smaller than a Christmas bulb.


I use it b/c over the winter I had a red 100 watt flood light in their coop for supplemental heat. When I had put them in their coop, for the first time, in late November when they were 8 weeks old, we had some really unseasonably cold weather so I gave them a little help with some heat. It just got colder and colder (it was a really hard and cold winter here) so I left it in there, knowing that I was messing up their natural acclimation of cold weather. So I felt that I had to leave it on all winter. When the light finally burned out several weeks ago, coincidentally coinciding with nicer weather, they wouldn't go into the coop at dusk b/c they were afraid of the dark, even though it really wasn't that dark out yet. There they were, all huddled in a corner of the run near the house flood light. So that's why I put the little night light in there. I do plan on turning it off soon.

 

[Lisa202]

Quote:
I had the same problem with them being up at night. They did sleep, but they went to bed later. I didn't like having the light on at all, but I thought that I shouldn't take the additional heat away during this incredibly cold winter we had.

 

[ralleia]

Quote:
Even red light gets registered as light to the hens. I honestly don't see how chickens can be "afraid" of the the dark. It just sounds like they've had their biological rhythms seriously confused by the artificial light, and then the sudden withdrawal of the light.

The natural day/night of summer will probably un-confuse them over time. Can you turn off the house flood light as well?

If you think you need artificial heat for the winter, I would consider a radiant panel like the "Eco Heater." I bought a 400 watt one for my chicken coop, but ended up not using it this winter because I ended up with 42 chickens going into winter, which is already the equivalent of close to 600 watts. So instead I used it in my bedroom. The radiant panel produces no light.

I don't know about constant-light effects on chickens, but I know it's not good for humans. I wouldn't do it. The only living things I use constant light on are my spring veggie seedlings.

 

[jaketheeggman]

Thanks for the great help

 

[The Chickeneer]

As you probably already know, light affects the production of eggs, more light=more eggs/ less light=less eggs.Considering that it is summer, it probably wont effect egg production since the summer months are the ones with the most daylight hours. But during the winter or the fall when the days get shorter, then that is when the egg production goes way down. Some winter days you wont even get any eggs, so I wouldn't woory about it now but you probably should put that light back on in the coop when fall starts.

 

[Double-0 Chicken]

We live in Maine, short days during the winter and I have a string of Christmas light stapled to the inside roof of the coop and it offers just enough light to be able to read a book in. Seems to work for the ladies. The extension cord runs to the deck next to our back door and we just unplug when we head to bed. Summer time no extra light is needed lots of that to go around plus they free range during the day