Hooking up light timer

[Mavrik]

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Also there is the drawback of shutting the light off when it's dark, the chickens won't be able to see the roosts to get up on them.

 

[mendozer]

I see. mine don't seem to want to roost anyways, they just sit on the ground and chit chat for a few hours before going to bed. Perhaps I'll just extend the morning.

 

[goldies99]

i dont have that many chickens and we are big eggs eaters!!!!.....they just started to lay...this is my first time for chickens.....i hate to stop
i good thing!!!!....and my chickens are ALL on the roost when i shut the light off!!!

 

[Tambo26]

I'm not really interested in getting more eggs from my girls but I do want them to have a little more time to poke around in their run! I bought a dusk/dawn timer for $9.99 at Target and set it to turn on at dusk and off 4 hours later, hooked up to a light in the run. That way, when I get home from work they are still up and I can go out and spend time with them. They still know when their bedtime is and are almost always on the roost when I go out to later to shut them in.

 

[okie_biddy]

I light my coop from 5 am to 7 pm and I usually go out to close the coop up before the light goes off and they are usually on their roost getting settled in when I arrive. I count heads say good night and lock the door. In the morning I go and let them out after the light has been on awhile before I go to work and they are ready to hit the yard. This system works for us.
I use a dual timer by the way that I got at Wally world the light is on from 5am to 8 am then 4pm to 7pm and I use a florescent bulb equal to 60 watt.

 

[Linn Bee]

I have my lights set to give my hens 14 hours of light. The light comes on in the morning and goes off about 8:00 am. Then it comes on about 4:30 pm and goes off at 7:30. I have a second light - a red light - that comes on 15 min before until 15 min after the 7:30 lights out. That gives my chickens some warning that 'night' is coming and a bit of dim light to be safely roosted by 7:45.

I have been gradually moving my start time and end time to get to natural sunset so I can oust the red light.

No heat in the coop here in south-est, central-est Wisconsin.

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin

 

[Chickenaddict]

I am from Mn and have very tiny bantams out on my coop so i use 1 heat lamp and a floreecent light on a timer programmed for 13 hours of light. Because I lock my birds in the coop over winter I had to provide light all day verses just a few hours. Ours has 2 clips of each color, green and red so we could program it to come on at different times like u mentioned but never used it that way.

 

[mendozer]

Ok i did it this weekend. I got an outdoor extension cord, took off the female end, and made it into an outlet box which I mounted my two-outlet timer to. One goes to the cookie tin heater for the water, the other goes to another cookie tin heater I glued a picture frame to so light is emitted as well.

me new outlet, screwed to a removable board which rests on nails. In the spring, I'll remove the board entirely.

cookie tin with window for light.

cookie tin for water tank

All of it from afar, with my coop winterized with 6 mil plastic. The green cord runs to the outdoor plug on the house.

Both tins use 40W incandescent bulbs from the dollar store.
Both tins were from goodwill at 1.99/pc
Ext cord was $13.00 from Lowes (landscaping cord, 12 gauge)
outlet box and faceplate from lowes all for under $5
Two 6 ' cords for two heaters were 1.19 each from Lowes.
I had the light sockets on hand (but they are .99c from walmart).
Total cost: 26 bucks.

 

[mdewitt71]

WOW, I just found this thread on a search..........cool ideas I am seeing.
I like the cookie tin heaters.....neat.
Trying to figure out a light source for my hen house to extend thier days a lil they are slowing down in the egg laying this time of the year.

 

[CluckinCoop]

I built a light timer and heat lamp control for our coop, it does the following:

• Keeps a constant 15 hours of daylight for our chickens, adding light only on the morning so the nightly chicken routine is not disturbed.
• Monitors the temperature inside the coop, if it gets too cold a heat lamp kicks on until the desired temperature is made and then the light is turned off.
• Sends data every minute to a website that lets me track coop temperature. You can see the graphs here, https://cosm.com/feeds/78891

• In a couple weeks I will have an automatic locking door as well.

The whole setup was about $220 but now I don't have to worry about temperatures or adjusting light timers as the length of day changes.
Not to mention it was fun to build.


Here are some pictures


The brains of the whole thing.





Relays that control the light and the heat lamp




View of the whole thing with the covers off.




Whole setup, which is under the coop. Conduits for power and internet access for reporting data to cosm.com