How much light to provide as days get shorter?

m_shuman

Songster
8 Years
Apr 22, 2011
265
6
111
Springfield, GA
We do not have electricity in our coop because there is no way to run it from the house plus DH dosen't want to run electricity to the coop because then the coop becomes a taxable structureon our property in the county we live in. I would like to try to add light to our coop in the winter and was wondering if a few solar lights around the run and in the chicken house would be enough for the girls to continue laying throughout the winter?
 
I don't know, that is a good question. I have read though that all you need is enough light to read a newspaper. Maybe that would be enough, depending on how many lights you have.
 
We do have a light due to not having any windows. Our coop is in our garage and we use a standard door as their window and entrance to the run. We only use the light with big thunderstorms or subzero tempatures. We go by the sun as far as the light duration. I've heard and read that you can over run your chickens by making them lay too much. We are planning on keeping them forever, so we are trying to be as natural as possible. I believe we have a couple breeds that lay right through the winter.
 
Can you run a drop cord out to the coop? That's what we do in the winter. The lightbulb should help keep it warm enough as well as provide light on those short days of winter. My neighbor puts hers on a timer in the winter and has it come on around 3:30 a.m. and it goes off about the time of normal winter dark hours. Her hens seem to be very happy with this arrangement.
 
We haven't added any artificial light yet to the coops but I have noticed that their egglaying times are later in the morning than they were a month ago. So I'm interested in what the experts have to say. Otherwise, I'll add a bit of light to the morning hours consistent with a wake up time of 6:00-6:30 or so.
 
Ive been reading and for consistent laying, it seems 14 hours of light is needed. I am going to be looking into putting a light in on a timer, so they have a little more time in the evening, since they go to bed about 8 pm it seems, and while its still a little light out, not enough and then wake them up a little earlier. Still trying to decide when. 6 am maybe?
 

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