Does your coop need light?

[gottaknit]

Quote:
I don't think anyone is keeping their chickens in complete darkness. Just giving artificial lighting because there is no way to give them the natural stuff.

Ah, okay, that makes sense. Some kind of light is better than no light at all.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Apparently, chickens need very little light in the coop. The University of Saskachewan person is talking about barely enuf to read a newspaper.

We know that bright lights can lead to behavior problems. I guess it is better to error on the side of low light rather than bright.

I use an 11 watt compact flourescent light and wonder if it may be too bright. But, I always had a 40 w incadescent in there before this year and never had any feather picking with the hens.

Steve

 

[cooper401]

Thanks I agree, I don't see any reason you annot use flouresent lights, they are even cooler.

*edited by staff.*

 

[Akane]

Fluorescents should work better than incandescents and require less light. You can get them in full or daylight spectrum lighting which provides as close to sunlight as possible. Incandescents are mostly just yellow and green spectrum lights. I know for plants the red and blue is mostly what they need and to get fish to spawn in my fresh and saltwater tanks would require more blue and red. Incandescents only work if you put a heck of a lot of light on there and then you can get odd plant growth or in fish tanks excessive algae.

 

[pullorroo]

I am new to keeping chickens... Just into my third week of getting eggs...

We live on a North East exposure, under the shade of trees to boot, so when I built the coop and run, I used a transparent corrugated roof to allow as much natural light in as possible.
I hope not to use extra light or heat. I'll let you know how it goes after a few years......

 

[curliet]

Cooper,
Since we live in a town that hasn't yet become enlightened about raising chickens in your backyard and because of the circumstances we are in, our chickens are living in a coop that has been built inside our garage. Their are a few windows in the garage, but we've covered them with cardboard so that neighborhood kids (and adults) can't snoop around and look in. So, it's pretty dark there with just a little light that gets in around the edges. Thus, the idea of "Stealth" chickens.
Anyway, I would be cruel if I let them stay in the dark, would never do that. So I have a fixture with a few small appliance lights on it, as well as one of those red heat bulbs. I have them set so that they can come on independently, when it's fairly warm, I light the coop with the small bulbs, it's a mellow warm light, and if it's cold I unscrew one or more of the bulbs and use the heat lamp.
There is a small run that Rick built on the side of the garage that the coops opens into, so they do get out during part of the day, but this has to coincide with the working hours of our closest neighbors. So they don't get as much natural light as I'd like. This is not what I believe to be the best system, but is the best I can do for them right now. As it's winter in a northern state, light would be a problem even if they weren't stealth' chickens. I would still supplement the daylight to a small degree with artifical light just to replicate the natural daytime light. I feel that this is best for the overall welfare of the chickens, and as a bonus I still get to have pretty much normal egg production. Like you, I'm not trying to make money, just have some eggs for breakfast and a few for my kids.
A normal day with light would be 12-14 hours in most places. I was only wondering if your chickens were going outside or not, and getting daylight, and if so do you really need to add light? I wasn't criticizing you, you asked for advice and I was trying to see what kind of advice I might be able to give you that would make sense. It helps to know what your situation is before assuming what you need. Sorry if I offended, I mentioned that maybe I was misunderstanding, maybe you scanned past that.