Is it *really* unnatural to add light?

[deerman]

No person or no chicken need more than 8 hours sleep a day!!!!!!!!!!! keeping chickens in the dark for 16 hours is crazy, would you keep your children in the dark that long. Remember chicken are not from a place with short daylight

Chicken will lay with longer lights, as long as they are in condition, then take a break untill back in condition. Pullet and young hens 6 months to 18 months lay a egg a day. older hens egg every other day. Their egg laying amout has to do with age. Give them the proper light, their body will shut down the egg production if not in condition before it harms them. Like wild birds will not breed if food supply get short, Parakeets,common quail, both produce lots of young in times of plenty.....

 

[weaveagarden]

Treat the poor little things for their Seasonal Affective Disorder and shine a little light in their coop. A couple of extra hours a day in the dead of winter won't do any of them any harm. Then they aren't cooped up at 4AM when they are all slept out.

 

[dawny2u2]

I have a question to add... is the light from the red heat lamp, enough to be considered adding light to the coop? They seem to still be able to get around, if they need to, but don't seem to be active as they are with the 40 watt bulb on. I have to put the light on for awhile in the morning, because it is dark when I leave, and dark when I get home, and there are duties in the coop to attend to, since they will not venture out in the zero degree weather. After reading your comments... I don't want to supplement light, but I believe they do need that heat lamp.

 

[Royd]

Being in Florida, our longest daylight is right at 14 hours.... I have simply set my outer time limits, to the longest day of the year, which is 5:30am-8:30pm. Then, I adjust the inner limits to correspond with actual sunrise/ sunset.

 

[sonew123]

Im all for the light only because I use a heating bulb for extra warmth-I know it will dip down into the 20 below mark before long and I dont want my girls freezing. If I had a heated garage thats my goal for next year. Now though, I leave to the lights on during nightime to offset cold. I went down to my coop this am and it was 23 degrees in there when the heating light went on it went up 15 degrees in 1 hour. Im good with that...

 

[Jenski]

I am finding more differences between HATCHERY birds and farm-raised or BREEDER birds with regard to egg problems -- as opposed to light manipulation, which I have used in the past. In my experience, the hatchery-sourced birds suffered more complications in general than the other strains I have had. Don't know if others have had the same experience.

Now with regard to using light in winter, I now use a modified version that allows me to feed and care for them before and after work, and that's it. It is not long enough to keep my standard size hens in year-round production, although for whatever reason my bantams (first year and the older ones too) are still laying, though less than in summer.

Right now in the darker part of winter here in Tennessee, my pen lights (never coop lights) come on at 0625, very shortly before sunrise. They click off an hour or so later, and then back on around 1530 (3:30) and stay on until around 1730 (5:30) in the evening. Just enough to take care of business and scoop the pens. Some hens stay out until the lights kick off, some go in when it starts getting dark.

One thought I have had as I think about where I am heading with chicken breeds and eggs, is that winter production is becoming important to me. As I look for new strains of birds to add to the flock when hatching time comes, I am going to add that to my list of requirements. There are differences among breeds, and even among lines within breeds. There are some folks on BYC who have excellent winter-laying lines, I guess I am thinking in particular of some of the Dorking and Welsummer folks. Just something to think about.


Thanks to everyone for sharing your various practices on this. It's interesting and helpful to know what others are doing, and how it's working out for you.


[Ed. to add - - my own coop heat sources do not give off light.]

 

[gsim]

Increases egg production somewhat and shortens life of birds. More eggs in less time. I don't do it but I do leave their twin fluorescent lights overhead on in AM on dark and rainy/snowy mornings until I get back out there to do first check for eggs. People use timers to do this to increase production. Some say it caused an early painful death, but I do not know that to be true.

 

[GaNewChick]

I have 5 game chickens that showed up as strays when a neighbor moved out 2 years ago ... I can't touch them, they free range and roost in the trees by the garden. They mainly feed off of bugs and I throw them scratch 3 times a day in the cold months when the bugs are down. They go up to their roosts at around 5:30 pm and don't come down until a little after 7:00 am.

I have 4 in the coop that are about 5 months old ... I got my first egg on Thanksgiving morning and 2 of them are now laying daily under the same light conditions.

Why would this be unnatural for them? I see them adapting as nature would have them do.

 

[mandelyn]

It's unnatural to coop chickens, yet we do it for their safety.

It's unnatural to feed them medicines, yet we do it for their health.

It's unnatural to feed them grain/feed, yet we do it to ensure their dietary needs are met.

It's unnatural for them to live in cold climates with little light, we add light to supplement this change in their natural habitat.

If you live in Florida, or even Tennessee, you don't need to add light. If you live in Montana, Canada... Alaska... for the health of the bird I think extra light is needed on the shortest days. Or you could switch to fowl of a non-migratory species native to the area and raise those if you want "natural".

The farther a species gets from it's natural habitat, the more people have to do for the animals to ensure their physical and MENTAL health.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I have raised chickens for 17 years & have lighted for all 17. Yes, I change chickens every two years, but from my first flock we kept 4 through the changes, because my kids considered them pets. These were Barred Rocks. Most of these pets lived 9 years and all but 1 layed 3-4 eggs a week until they died. While they weren't the oldest chickens by far, I don't think I "shortened" their life severely by adding winter lights.