Yes. It is a regular bulb. It is actually a 1W LED non breakable bulb to put a little light in the coop at night. There are no leaks. I have checked. The roof coating I applied this summer (three coats) is working perfectly. The clamp is VERY stiff and is holding so tight that I can't move it without BOTH hands.
I know this isn't relevant to your original question but is it that they don't like the dark (what makes you think that?) or you think it shouldn't be dark and thus have acclimated them to having light? Animals rest better when it's dark, same with humans. It may throw off their laying in the long run.
My mother in law started them off in her house and NEVER turns the TV off. They got used to at least a little light at night. When they moved into my home because they outgrew their brooder, they would go crazy in the night and not rest unless I left a light on. I brought the light with them when they moved to the coop. I have changed from a white to a red very LOW wattage light. I tried having it off and they freaked again. So, it's a night light in the big coop and no light in the little one where my older hen sleeps. I also have a timer on my large overhead light so they get 16 hours of light a day to encourage laying.
How long did you leave them to get used to it?
They have had this red light for a week now. Tonight, at ya'll urging, I turned it off. It wasn't completely dark outside so they had a little light through their two windows. They didn't fuss at all!!! I had coop prep jobs still to do and when I closed the small door they started fussing but they settled back down within a minute.
I highly doubt it's your chickens bringing in that much water to make it wet under their roosts. Have you seen their poops? If they are having really watery poops, then I suppose it could in time become sloppy beneath their roosts and you just need something more absorbent there.
Like the old adage, "The shoemaker's kids go barefoot..." My best chicken-buddy (who sells eggs as a side business to support her chicken habit) said her daughter's always complaining,"How come we have 50 chickens and never any eggs for US in the house?" Her customers have "first dibs"!
Don’t do it! I did it and it was the worst mess ever!!! It turned into this heavy material like cement! Ugh…it was a nightmare and were a backyard flock so the trash ppl wouldn’t collect my green waste can because of it since everything was too heavy. We had to make a trip to the dump to get rid of it all… Nightmare, and the even worst part of it all was — It was dry only a few centimeters on top, but underneath it stayed wet, it never dried out. Even with days and days of Sun and dry weather — Good Luck! I ended up sticking to Pine shavings and Coop refresher/First Saturday Lime and a lot of ventilation and raking
