has anyone put a light inside of your ark?

[speckledegg]

We are getting an ark tractor for our chickies and I'm thinking I want to add a light up top since it's so dark here in the winter and to help our hens lay more consistantly. Has anyone done this? Do you have pictures you would mind sharing?

 

[CapricornFarm]

Yeah, all my chicken tractors have lights, but I am no good posting pics. You can see a small pic of one as my avatar right now. I just run extension cords and make sure the plug is inside . Or sometimes I duct tape over where the cords join so water doesn't get in.

 

[nanawendy]

We have those tap on lights from home depot... not the really cheap one. but mid range. The work great and we replace w/ batteries when needed. I have them in the broodie coop and grow out pen as well.

 

[Sparklee]

A photo? Ha ha. I am not sticking my head in there to take a photo. Ha ha. I think it would be out of focus anyway because it's so small of a space. (3' x 4' x 4'high). And there's chicks in there right now! Nope. Sorry. You'll have to use your imagination.

A regular brooder light was put up in there. You know the kind with the metal round reflector and the two wires over the light that they sell in the chicken section at the farm store.

First we bought a plug replacement. Then we cut the plug off the very end of the electric cord of the brooder light.

Drilled hole at top on the side of ark for the cord to fit through.

Pushed the wire through and tied a knot in the electrical cord next to the hole (on the outside) to keep brooder light tight up against the ceiling/side (on the inside). We do have an overhang so water doesn't get it much if any. I don't see how it could unless it was raining horizontally with great force.

Put on the new plug replacement, onto the end of the electrical cord that was cut. Plug into extension cord.

Plug it in to turn on.

No fires yet. 100 Watt bulbs. Used it from about October through May. I try to keep the bulb and reflector dusted off every few weeks.

 

[swmalone]

I placed on in the ark when I put the chicks out this spring and will use it again this winter. I just have one of the small types used for a brooder and put a 100 Watt incandescent bulb which will provide light and a bit of heat. I run the extension cord inside so that the connection is out of the weather.

 

[speckledegg]

nanawendy- I love your idea! Do those give off enough light to help them continue to lay in the winter?

Sparklee- thanks for the description! No pictures necessary! lol! I think my main concern is a fire since it's such a small space up there! Glad to hear you have everything working well and haven't had a fire.

Glad to know it can be done safely!

 

[Sparklee]

Quote:
Yeah, no guarantees on the safety. We just haven't had a fire yet.

By the way, usually a chicken will lay through their first winter without any hiccups to speak of. It's that second and succeeding winters that they're not to great about laying without a little extra light. But if the sleeping section of the ark doesn't have a window of some sort, then you have to be out there at dawn (or just before) to let them out to make sure they can see all the daylight there is and that can be a pain because the time that dawn arrives is always changing.