Is a single light bulb sufficient to light a 5x7 coop?

[Joyryder]

Quote:

Well you know, often they have to sit in the nestbox for a while before the egg comes out, I'm sure you've seen them there staring off into space looking bored, stands to reason they'd be more apt to go in there and lay if they have reading matter to occupy them while they wait, sort of like a magazine rack next to your toilet

Pat

Very Funny Pat, VERY FUNNY!

 

[Wynette]

An opinion from the other side of the winter lighting fence: please consider not forcing them to lay through winter. It's nature's way of giving them a break, which they all need now & then. JMO!

 

[chookchick]

Well I'll be! That's why my chickens aren't laying--they have no reading material to occupy them while they lay ("done that, been there there's more to life than laying eggs", etc)..and I thought they couldn' t even read. Patandchickens probably has the Wall Street Journal in there, or Science News? (or is it pandachickens....)

Wynette--I was all aboard the "give them a rest, let nature take it's way" train, until ALL six of my chickens, some young, some old, decided to give it up (not like last year at all). We've got to have something to eat besides battery eggs! Soon as molting is over--a little extra light is coming.....

 

[Amy's Animals]

Quote:
We don't "force" them, we "encourage" them. I, as someone without a job, has to make money to feed them somehow. Chickens still eat, wether they lay or not, if they don't lay I can't sell their eggs and in return I can't afford to feed them. Also, it is not winter yet and they have already stopped laying, there is a difference between a "break" and a 6 month vacation. Also, if they want a "break", they will take it with or without lighting. My silkie hen hasn't laid an egg since July.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Quote:

Well you know, often they have to sit in the nestbox for a while before the egg comes out, I'm sure you've seen them there staring off into space looking bored, stands to reason they'd be more apt to go in there and lay if they have reading matter to occupy them while they wait, sort of like a magazine rack next to your toilet

Pat

Just about the time I thought I was almost finished remodeling the coop, now I have to go back and add magazine racks. I guess now I will have to get them a subscription to Playroo and Broody Earth News.

Thanks Quailzilla and patandchickins for the laugh, made a memorable moment to my day!!!

 

[patandchickens]

Amy's Animals :

Also, it is not winter yet and they have already stopped laying, there is a difference between a "break" and a 6 month vacation.

Just a note on this -- remember that the drop in laying is centered (more or less) around the shortest day of the year, Dec 21. Not around 'winter', despite how people conventionally phrase things.

And it has seemed to me that mine tend to pick up sooner after the solstice than they quit before it -- for instance the sussexes slow down to a bare trickle of eggs in mid-Oct but pick up in mid-Jan.

So it is not like you have to wait til spring

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​