Florescent lights for hen house??

[ohiofarmgirl]

does it make any difference right now if we use a regular bulb or a florescent one in the hen house at nite?

we'd like to keep them laying for a while more and we are now less than 14 hrs of daylight. the florescent one gives off horrible light (to me) and since we dont need the heat from we thought we'd try. i just didnt have any idea if it would work or not.

i went out there last nite and it was like looking at the inside of the fridge.. sheesh!

any thoughts?

 

[briesberrypatch]

Do you mean a high-efficiency halogen light? That's what I use, but I have it set on a timer to come on in early the morning rather than staying on at night.

 

[SproutGirl]

We use a 60 watt cfl and it works fine. That's just for providing artificial lighting, though--not heat.

 

[HBuehler]

Depends on where your located and just how warm an area your chicken coop is...florescent bulbs do not do good in cold temps at all.We stay quite warm in TN but still have to use regular lights in the winter.
We leave a light on outside of our chicken condo's-built inside a tobacco shed to keep all critters at bay all night long and have small lights inside each condo that comes on early and stays on until bedtime.We also have heat in them if we just get a nasty cold spell...spoiled chickens I know

Most of the time it's not needed but better to have and not need than need and not have