Extra Light

[jthornton]

Was kinda kidding.....just looks SO bright!!

Yea before dawn the lights look very bright but the lumens (I forget the number) is not good enough for my machine shop lighting so I used the LED shop lights in the run. Where did I put my light meter...

JT

 

[aart]

Yea before dawn the lights look very bright

I kinda like that in the 'dark season', get up and the coop is all alight in the dark!

 

[OlympicChick]

Ahh, I thought that you had the 1/2" around everything.

 

[Mary's Farm]

New to chickens, have 9 hens (3 RIRs, 2 light Brahmas, 3 barred Rocks, and 1 that is all black) and 1 rooster all about 16-17 weeks old, still waiting for the first egg.

I thought I needed to supplement light, so I got this portable solar LED light from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0792WCDZZ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I turn it on when I put the chickens up in evening to coop area from outside tractor area. If it was a sunny day, the light stays on for about 4 hours and fades out as battery charge fades. If it was a cloudy day, the light only stays on for about 1-2 hours and fades out. It's not a very bright supplemental light, but does allow chickens to see inside the coop in the evenings.

Do you think that's enough to stimulate egg production? Currently sun rises about 6:30 am and sets at 4:30 pm (southern AL) so we are only getting about 10 hours of daylight. I don't have electricity to my chicken tractor, so if it isn't enough will my hens not lay until spring when days are longer?

 

[jthornton]

I turn it on when I put the chickens up in evening to coop area from outside tractor area. If it was a sunny day, the light stays on for about 4 hours and fades out as battery charge fades. If it was a cloudy day, the light only stays on for about 1-2 hours and fades out. It's not a very bright supplemental light, but does allow chickens to see inside the coop in the evenings.

Do you think that's enough to stimulate egg production? Currently sun rises about 6:30 am and sets at 4:30 pm (southern AL) so we are only getting about 10 hours of daylight. I don't have electricity to my chicken tractor, so if it isn't enough will my hens not lay until spring when days are longer?

You need a consistent 14 hour day with a natural sunset-dusk transition so they have time to find the roost and get settled in. Best thing you can do with that light is use it when you need to see in the coop at night.

JT

 

[Mary's Farm]

Ugh. It sounds like I won't be getting eggs any time soon, then. Does that mean I should keep feeding them the "grower" feed until the first eggs come along (for 14 hour days, that probably won't happen until April). Geez.

 

[jthornton]

How old are the chickens and what breed?

The 14 hour thing is to keep hens laying through the winter months, if they have not started laying at all they will start when ready no matter the light. My pullets laid right through last winter and did not start to decrease until this fall. Extra light will not make them start laying early if they have never laid before.

My egg study
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rir-egg-size.1216453/#post-19419865

JT

 

[KJBarclay]

Providing extra light to stimulate egg laying has been discussed to death but a few variations I'd thought I'd ramble on about.

@aart mentioned that she does not start extra light until the end of December to allow them to moult which makes sense. So rather than hijack that thread any more I thought I'd start a new one. At my latitude November 23rd is 10:00 hours of daylight. So if I start my extra light then and add 10 minutes per day it will take me 24 days to reach 14:00 hours of daylight. @aart mentioned she added 30 minutes a week which would be 8 weeks for me or 56 days.

As mentioned before unless you can simulate the sunset it's best to add the light in the AM and use the sunset to allow them time to get comfortable on the roost.

As a side note I noticed my infrared lights on my camera was waking the hens up way too early so I now turn them off at night and they sleep right up to lights on time.

JT

My step dad was from Poplar Bluff, Glenn Chilton.

 

[Mary's Farm]

How old are the chickens and what breed?

The 14 hour thing is to keep hens laying through the winter months, if they have not started laying at all they will start when ready no matter the light. My pullets laid right through last winter and did not start to decrease until this fall. Extra light will not make them start laying early if they have never laid before.

My egg study
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rir-egg-size.1216453/#post-19419865

JT

Aha, good to know. Also, thanks for posting the info about egg size. I posted age/breeds above, but they are all about 17 weeks now and a mix of RIRs, barred rocks, couple of light brahmas. I think a black Australorp (I got a mix from Cackle Hatchery called "Preppers Special," so I don't know for certain the breeds but that's what they look like.)

 

[Aunt Angus]

How old are the chickens and what breed?

The 14 hour thing is to keep hens laying through the winter months, if they have not started laying at all they will start when ready no matter the light. My pullets laid right through last winter and did not start to decrease until this fall. Extra light will not make them start laying early if they have never laid before.

My egg study
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rir-egg-size.1216453/#post-19419865

JT

I have been searching for info about this. I am able to set up supplemental lighting pretty easily, but haven't yet because I wasn't sure if it would help/hinder/have no effect on my pullets who have yet to start laying. Your answer helps a lot!