They just need 13 or so hours of light. You don't want them on all night ( get a cheap timer) because they will wake you up! I use them at night and not morning because my main coop is under my bedroom window, and peppy chickens at 3 AM sucks. Some people suggest morning is better, however, so they don't get surprise by the lack of light away from the roosts. But mine just roosted in the coop with the lights so it was never a problem.
We used the LEd ones, less electric and no fear of fires. I used rope lighting, not xmas lighting, because my girls liked to try and eat the xmas lights, bad chickens no cookies for you. It took a week or 2 for them to start again, but it worked to start last years pullets laying before spring.
I intend to do it again later in the winter, right now I can't deal with more chicks so no incubations, and I froze a whole bunch of over abundant summer eggs for winter baking, so as long as one of my girls gives me an egg a day, i'm good for reg eating eggs. I want the Marans girls to have a nice long break so I get nice dark eggs in January.
Well, yeah....
