got my first eggs from my fawn and white runners today!

[critterranch]

hatch 7/17/10 and their laying 21 weeks.i got 3 eggs today.
it was 6 degrees a couple days ago and 30 today .
so happy i want to start hatching in febuary so we're off to good start!
mine get 17 hours of light started at 15 weeks

was wondering what age other peoples runners started? with or with out extra light?

 

[katharinad]

They say 14-17 hours of light. It really should be based on what is the total hours of natural light in summer. For New York is is 15 hours and 6 minutes. So 15 hours of light should do fine for your birds. If you give them 17 hours then they will be 2 hours short in summer. I know there have been various studies and some even give 24 hours of light. Metzer Farms uses 17 hours. One mass farm in Germany uses 24 hours, but changes the intensity and color spectrum throughout the day. They have gotten it down to a dot and have the best egg production in the world. Only they are not sharing the details at this point. There are also different bulbs that can be used. I use a plant growing bulb for my little duckies after the fluorescent bulb bombed, or better did not work for them. I guess there is no real consensus on this and how to do it best. I have up here 15 hours and 15 minutes of daylight in summer. So I give my ducks 15 hours and they seem to be doing great laying an egg per day. They do need some rest time and darkness too. To find out the hours of daylight in your town check out this link:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/duration-us
There are also some other interesting charts there:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services