Egg Laying Light Requirements

[labo47]

Hi. We got our first flock of 10 chicks Easter weekend 2011. The second set of 12 three weeks later. OK, 12 hours minimum seems to be the agreed daily light requirements for optimum egg laying, but we haven't gotten any eggs yet. A few questions:

If we put artificial lighting in the coop, should light be added at the beginning of the daylight hours, the end of the daylight hours, or does it really matter?

Does artificial lighting age the chickens faster because they are producing more?

Thanks,
Labo47

 

[magicpigeon]

I didn't think the light affected laying that much though I could be wrong...

 

[MommyMagpie]

We have light in our coop and I've got it on a timer, it comes on about 4:30 pm and goes off at 9 right now. When it starts to get darker at an earlier time I will reset the timer to have the light come on at 3 and go off at 9:45.

The friend who gave us our first two hens has his light come on in the morning, but they are all really early risers (I'm a morning person and they put me to shame); I'd rather stay up late than get up before 5 am.

I don't know what the "right" thing to do is, we just do what works for us, and the chickens seem ok with it.