How well can chicks see at night?

[bjw113]

My husband built our roosting bars in the coop about 40" off the ground. Our chicks are 7 weeks old today. Last night, we had three of our plymouth white rocks get to the roosting bars via my DH knees, to shoulder, to head (!) and then to bars!

He is so patient! Can chickens see well at night?

Anyway, we were afraid to leave them on the bars over night, as we do not have a light out there at night anymore (night temps have been 70 degrees plus), and didn't want to risk them hurting themselves overnight by not being able to see how close/far away the floor was. We are getting a mechanics light to hang out there tonight with a low wattage bulb in there. Is this a silly worry? These are our first babies, and we are so careful about everything.

Appreciate any feedback.

 

[gryeyes]

I have an intermediate height roost bar braced in a corner, which the chickens use to hop to the 3 higher roosts, which are all at the same height. But they're still only about 3.5 feet off the ground. I know that many chickens will FLY up to rafters in some coops and barns.

Chickens do NOT see well in the dark. But I don't have a light on in the coop.... I do have a lot of solar-powered illumination in the yard, one of which is a lamp-post type stancion with 3 bright lamps. It provides plenty of light for ME to walk out to the coop at night. I also keep a flashlight on the top of the rollaway nest box which pooches out of a coop wall.

I think there is a slight bit of ambient light from the lamp post for the chickens to have SOME tiny bit of light through one window.

One thing I did in the coop when I built it was to put a horse stall mat down on the floor underneath all the deep litter pine shavings. I just thought that bit of resiliance would be better for skinny little chicken feetsies when they jump off the roosts.