Electric Fence and Chicken Door (Coop Update)

[ihvpower]

Quote:

 

[325512]

Where did you get the plastic? I would assume that it is thicker than plastic sheeting that you would buy at a Lowes or Home Depot. I don't know where to buy plastic thicker than that.

 

[Gypsy52]

Quote:

I think that doing this is asking for premature laying and consequent problems caused by that, like Prolapsed Oviducts.
Chickens get the reproducing hormones levels high when they get 14 hours or more of daylight, if they get their hormones up before their bodies are ready they will get problems.

Can you point to a study?

Using that reasoning you would expect chicks born in spring an summer to have "problems."

People that think chickens need short winter days to be healthy forget that chickens are not native to places that this happens. They are native to the tropics where day length does not change much.

No. I can't point a study that say what I said, word by word.

But I can point studies that:
- are the base for modern egg laying explorations with closed controlled environment, where the conclusion is that 14hours or more of light daily increases the bird sexual hormones resulting in increased egg production;
- conclude that sexual hormones are the trigger for starting sexual maturity and reproduction (not only on birds though).

Of course an animal body is not prepared to produce this hormones at born time, but the problem is that they are able to produce it way before they are prepared for it;

For this you don't need studies, every body knows that major causes for prolapsed oviduct are:
-Immaturity of the female sexual organs* (specially oviduct);
-The size of the egg being to big for the current oviduct size (also related with immaturity, but can also apply to mature chicken);


Conclusions are easy to get, but I will point them anyway; = or > 14hours daylight increases the bird sexual hormones that trigger sexual development that can cause the problems I referred if at early age.

Many more birds are affected this way by light, quail, partridge, etc. , most of them from the Galliformes order, that's why mating season for this WILD birds is spring/summer which means their offspring bodies when expose to these long days (spring/summer) are too young (1 or 2 months) to react to them, so they will mature during fall/winter and will only experience 14 or more hours of day light in the next year when they are prepared to mate. What humans do is exposing chicks that are 4 to 6 months old to this prejudicial quantities of light artificially (with lamps) or naturally (if they incubate eggs in winter, per example).

You said "chickens are native to the tropics", nowadays chickens are native to nowhere, they have been domesticated some thousand years ago and transported to very different latitudes enough time ago to evolve there, ANYWAY I do NOT point this (natural evolution) as the cause for nothing, just referring it because you pointed it out.

In fact nowadays chickens are much less prone to problems derivate from this much less than wild birds, (because if by human hand they are exposed to too much light too young, they are being unconsciously selected to be less prone to this problem, because the ones that get prolapsed oviduct per example get euthanazed so do not pass their genes) but they still are vulnerable to this, specially the egg laying breeds selected to react more to bigger days, and if 1 in 10 are affected is still a loss you can avoid, by listening to what I said.

You said, in the tropics day length does not change much, well did you know that Red Jungle fowl, said to be the "father" of all domestic chickens today, natural to Tropic of Cancer zones (as you well referred), mates in spring, not all year round or sometimes when it happens by mistake, this means that even that "day length does not change much" they know/feel/react when it changed, that is why this day light is an important issue!


(*)- Immaturity of:
-Ovary/Infundibulum, causes yolkless eggs;
-Magnum/Isthmus, causes rubber eggs;
-Oviduct, causes prolapsed oviduct;
----this are all symptoms of early laying-----


P.S. - I'm not a natural English speaker, so please forgive me for my grammatical/syntax errors, I tried my best.

Well

Quote:

I think that doing this is asking for premature laying and consequent problems caused by that, like Prolapsed Oviducts.
Chickens get the reproducing hormones levels high when they get 14 hours or more of daylight, if they get their hormones up before their bodies are ready they will get problems.

Can you point to a study?

Using that reasoning you would expect chicks born in spring an summer to have "problems."

People that think chickens need short winter days to be healthy forget that chickens are not native to places that this happens. They are native to the tropics where day length does not change much.

No. I can't point a study that say what I said, word by word.

But I can point studies that:
- are the base for modern egg laying explorations with closed controlled environment, where the conclusion is that 14hours or more of light daily increases the bird sexual hormones resulting in increased egg production;
- conclude that sexual hormones are the trigger for starting sexual maturity and reproduction (not only on birds though).

Of course an animal body is not prepared to produce this hormones at born time, but the problem is that they are able to produce it way before they are prepared for it;

For this you don't need studies, every body knows that major causes for prolapsed oviduct are:
-Immaturity of the female sexual organs* (specially oviduct);
-The size of the egg being to big for the current oviduct size (also related with immaturity, but can also apply to mature chicken);


Conclusions are easy to get, but I will point them anyway; = or > 14hours daylight increases the bird sexual hormones that trigger sexual development that can cause the problems I referred if at early age.

Many more birds are affected this way by light, quail, partridge, etc. , most of them from the Galliformes order, that's why mating season for this WILD birds is spring/summer which means their offspring bodies when expose to these long days (spring/summer) are too young (1 or 2 months) to react to them, so they will mature during fall/winter and will only experience 14 or more hours of day light in the next year when they are prepared to mate. What humans do is exposing chicks that are 4 to 6 months old to this prejudicial quantities of light artificially (with lamps) or naturally (if they incubate eggs in winter, per example).

You said "chickens are native to the tropics", nowadays chickens are native to nowhere, they have been domesticated some thousand years ago and transported to very different latitudes enough time ago to evolve there, ANYWAY I do NOT point this (natural evolution) as the cause for nothing, just referring it because you pointed it out.

In fact nowadays chickens are much less prone to problems derivate from this much less than wild birds, (because if by human hand they are exposed to too much light too young, they are being unconsciously selected to be less prone to this problem, because the ones that get prolapsed oviduct per example get euthanazed so do not pass their genes) but they still are vulnerable to this, specially the egg laying breeds selected to react more to bigger days, and if 1 in 10 are affected is still a loss you can avoid, by listening to what I said.

You said, in the tropics day length does not change much, well did you know that Red Jungle fowl, said to be the "father" of all domestic chickens today, natural to Tropic of Cancer zones (as you well referred), mates in spring, not all year round or sometimes when it happens by mistake, this means that even that "day length does not change much" they know/feel/react when it changed, that is why this day light is an important issue!


(*)- Immaturity of:
-Ovary/Infundibulum, causes yolkless eggs;
-Magnum/Isthmus, causes rubber eggs;
-Oviduct, causes prolapsed oviduct;
----this are all symptoms of early laying-----


P.S. - I'm not a natural English speaker, so please forgive me for my grammatical/syntax errors, I tried my best.

 

[Gypsy52]

Well shucky darns Portugal. I just found all the info in one place. I have news for everybody. My chickens still lay in the Colorado winter. I lost all my astralorpes to foxes last spring. Needless to say my Roo was lonesome all summer. I couldn't afford to pay 15 apiece for them again. I went after some free ones at the end of summer. I received what might be 3 astrolorpes whites, and 3 Barr rocks. It's been a really light winter this year on the plain. I use no artificial light or anything like that. My Hens are laying anywhere from 2 to 5 eggs almost daily. Plenty for me. My son created a walk in coop out of the goat barn turned garden shed for The Kids ( ducks and hens) for me. They love it. I love the idea of the doggie door. Anyway just saying we went from 16 hours of sun down to 10 10.5 hrs. Except for when it's teens or below at night when they have to conserve their energy for heat, I still get eggs daily. Enough for me and a friend.