Easter Egger Sexing "tips and tricks" *Pictures Included*

[fosterson]

As long as you can see to read, it is enough light. A strand of white outdoor Christmas lights would do the trick!

 

[debid]

New layers can be quite erratic even with enough daylight. I haven't had a pullet be bothered by short days, myself. But the older hens really benefit from supplemental lighting. I have a 40W bulb in my coop on a timer and it's plenty for a 4x8. I add light in the AM because I worried that they might be off the roost when it gets dark if I added it in the evening. You want to add enough time that they get a minimum of 12 hours of light but not so much that you deprive them of rest. I give between 13 and 14 hours total light and I have hens that have finished molting coming back into lay. I'll keep dialing the time back as it gets darker earlier and then I reverse the process as the days start to lengthen again.

 

[CGinJCMO]

I too added light in the morning only. You also have to be careful about adding lights that doesn't have any flicker to it. I recently read that chickens can see the the subtle flicker of light and it will bother them. I wish I knew where I read it so I could direct you to the article.

I'm torn between adding light to keep up production and letting the girls take a break. By only doing 12 hours, I'm hoping to just keep the egg production from declining and yet still not feel the pressure of full-time production like they would in the summer.

CG

 

[tsetse9]

I too added light in the morning only.  You also have to be careful about adding lights that doesn't have any flicker to it.  I recently read that chickens can see the the subtle flicker of light and it will bother them.  I wish I knew where I read it so I could direct you to the article.

CG

I've read quite a few articles recently about chicken vision. I think the one you are referring to is this one...

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/chicken-vision/

Here is that excerpt...

Chickens also have much better motion sensing ability than we do.  Not as good as hawks, but better than us….again because of a structure called a double cone in the retina.  This is important if you use flourescent lights in your coop.  Flourescent lights flicker on and off at a rate above what we can see….you notice it on old flourescent tubes that are dying….the flicker rate slows down and we can see it.  It is exceptionally annoying.  Birds can see the flicker in many flourescent lights, especially dimmable ones that are at lower intensity.  It would be like being in a dance club with strobe lights on…..all the time….it drives them nuts…literally.  On objects sitting still, chickens may not have as much acuity as we do, however.  This explains why hens are as “spooky” as they are when somebody makes a sudden movement, and why one bird jumping from something can cause the entire flock to take wing, even if they didn’t see the offending stimulus. 

 

[CGinJCMO]

Quote:
This isn't the exact same place, but it looks like the same paragraph. Your article was written over a year and a half ago and has more information than the article I read. My article author probably read your author and quoted him.

Thanks for the article.
CG

 

[Penny Hen]

This is a good time to go shopping for lights because they will have the Christmas lights out. You can get one of these timer device extention cords that are programable for when you want you Christmas lights to come on and go off. Only you just hook your chicken house to it. We have had ours for a while and if I can find it I will be hooking it up to my pen. It didn't see use last year because we were holding back on the lights so as not to run the electric bill up. And that was before I had chickens. So I realized that it would work perfectly to time the chicken light. I havn't priced a new one yet but I want to say that they range between $20 and $30 dollars depending on how many lights are designed to be plugged into them. The lights are critical to get them to lay with any regularity before February. It was one of the reasons that in pre electric days that they would whitewash the inside of a chicken house so that even cloudy low light days would get as much light on the chickens as possible. That and lime whitewash is good for discoruaging bugs.

 

[debid]

I used an inexpensive (<$5) mechanical timer and a utility light fixture that I already had (the orange kind with a bulb cage). I'd also heard no flourescents in the coop but hadn't heard why. Interesting.

 

[Penny Hen]

I used an inexpensive (<$5) mechanical timer and a utility light fixture that I already had (the orange kind with a bulb cage). I'd also heard no flourescents in the coop but hadn't heard why. Interesting.

Flourecents pulse very fast, too fast for humans to see but chickens can see it. It is like living on a disco floor with strobe lights all the time. Stresses them out.

 

[cortner1195]

I also use light in my coop. It is on a hard wired timer in the coop that turns the light on at 4:30 am, and off at 8:30 am. Then on again at 4:30 pm, and off again at 8:30pm. My timer was about $25. It is extremely complex to set the on/off times. I would do a different one if I ever need to change it. Then I have a red heat lamp in the coop that is on a thermostat controlled plug. I only want heat on below 30 degrees, but the thermostat turns it on at 32 and not off again until the 40's. I have one EE that had her tail feathers plucked out by her buddies. I worry about her rump being exposed with no feathers to cover. Yesterday she showed up after free range time with her one remaining tail feather broken off. She looks miserable. At least she can position herself in the coop to keep her rump warm.

I know that light in the coop is very controversial. I chose light for several reasons. Mostly that this allows the chickens to get up and eat all but 10 hours of the night. I think they need the extra food for heat production. Having them in the dark twelve or more hours per day is a long time to go without food. I also had some frost bite on the tips of spiky combs last year. I had not heard the info about CFL bulbs. When I checked into it last year I did not see mention of the flicker. So that is what I have been using. A 25W daylight range CFL that uses 9W of electricity. I will change it out.

 

[JesNflock]

Do you have lights on in the evening extending the "day light" for them? If not then you need to add one to keep light on them till at least 9 pm at night.

Do you know if you turn a light on earlier in the morning will the Rooster crow even earlier than he does already? ( It gets light at 6 and he starts crowing at about 330 or 4AM) I really don't want him crowing at 1am! lol