Is it *really* unnatural to add light?

[AnnesChicks]

Chiming in from the gray and rainy pacific northwest, I think my girls are happier with supplemental lighting. This is my first year with chickens and they went through their first heavy moult about a month ago, egg production dropped and most worriesome it didn't seem like they were eating as much of their layer pellets as before.

We added a string of rope lights (like christmas lights but in a flexible plastic tube), zig zagged across the ceiling and have it set to come on at 5:00 am until noon. Not a lot of electricity, they have a nice cozy coop so the heat is not that important and we feel a very low chance of any type of fire with these types of enclosed low wattage lights. But the girls have really perked up and are quite cheery when I let them out in the morning. In fact on really bad mornings, they just look out the door and refuse to come out til later, they have now trained me to throw their morning scratch into the coop on these really dark and rainy mornings. So going on their behavior, the fact that they are eating well and looking healthy - I will continue adding light in the mornings during.

We are not back to summer egg production, averaging 2-3 a day now - still plenty and we appreciate each and every one.

 

[LaSombra]

I'm in Washington (state) and it gets dark pretty early in the winter here (about 5pm lately). I don't keep a light on all night or anything but I have a timer that turns on the light at around 4pm and turns off at 9pm. Then it comes back on at 7am and turns off at 10am. It gets light out at 7am anyway but I have to go out there and it's not enough light for me in the coop that early yet

They still settle down in the coop when it's dark outside, start to roost and such, but I think they like the extra light so they don't have to sleep quite yet if they don't want to. I guess it's all just personal opinion. I've had people tell me I should leave the light on all night long but I think the dark is good for them at night so they sleep better.

 

[dipence71]

Quote:
I agree.... There is no such thing as all natural anymore. Just because you don't add chemicals to gardens and such the air around has chemicals in it from the farmers spraying their field, air planes, car exhaust ect ect.

Personally I think my chicks are much happier with the added light and it gives them a bit of warmth as well. They are running around in and out of the coop and when I didn't have the extra light they were like zombies. not awake not asleep. But that is just my preference as to how MY chicks seem to handle both no light and added light.

So I would add the light see what happens if they don't seem to like it. It is as simple as turning it off.

 

[fasbendera]

I didn't read all the posts but I use heat lamps to help keep my coop warm in the winter and they produce light. This is my fifth year and my two original hens are still laying and look healthier than ever (White Rock & EE). I have not made one trip to the vet, had any pecking issues or egg quality issues. They are happy, warmer than outside and healthy. My flock is a backyard flock of 24 and while they are kind of pets they are also there to produce eggs and I pick my breeds accordingly. My hens have access to Layena Pellets, oyster shells and grit 24/7. I also buy a scratch mix as a treat I give them once or twice a week along with all of the kitchen scraps. They love noodles, rice, goulash, pancakes, french toast (anything I don't use as leftovers or leftover leftovers). My coop is insulated but I supplemental heat to keep it just above freezing. Good luck!

 

[eenie114]

It can't hurt to try the light... unless your hens are like mine and knock it down.

 

[Momo]

Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful replies and wonderful exchange of ideas! I was very interested in the article on tumors in turkeys and I can well imagine that short nights would be very stressful for anyone's immune system. I'm going to try adding some extra light in the morning, which will still provide a longer period of full dark at night.

My stepmom (who lives nearby) recently added lights on a timer and she says her chickens seem overall much happier and cheerier. Her coop is darker than mine and even her run is fairly dark because it's in a forested area. She leaves the lights on in the coop all day and has discovered that while her girls are out in the roofed run on bright days, on darker days they hang out in the lit coop instead, so obviously they prefer a certain level of lighting.

My coop and run, fortunately, have good sun exposure; it's just that the days are so short this time of year. I'm not trying to force my hens into being egg laying machines and will not be slaughtering them every year, but I do like an egg now and then and I'm not adverse to enhancing their environment with some added lighting in the morning if it will make them happier and encourage them to lay a little better. I'm going to give it a try with the rope lights. I think it's clear that in a discussion of whether to add light we need to take geography and topography into account. To say "don't add light" is a very different thing in Georgia than it is in Canada. It's also true that my horses are out there in the darkness for 17 hours as well, but a critical difference is that they remain fairly active at night and spend a good portion of their time eating, whereas the chickens are stuck in a zombie-like state.

I'm not one to jump on every "natural" bandwagon that comes by, but given that keeping animals is unnatural in so many ways, I do like to provide the best (for them) environment for each type of creature in my care. My horses have free access to shelter and live on a "track" system to encourage movement, alleviate boredom and enhance their overall fitness and hoof health. My coop is insulated and well ventilated (thanks to this forum!) and I have a good sized predator proof roofed run within a large open fenced run so they have lots of space to go forth and "be chickens" in reasonable security. Chickens are very recent additions to this latitude and it seems to me that adding a few more hours of light for my chickens will be giving them a more "natural" environment. At any rate I'll try it and see how they seem (I work from a home office so I'm able to check on them throughout the day and have a pretty good sense of how they're doing). If I don't like the results, I can always turn off the lights!

 

[Akane]

Whether it works the same in birds I don't know but in mammals high levels of melatonin means low levels of serotonin which together equals depression, short temper, agressive behavior, laziness, weight gain, and a whole bunch of not great stuff. You might see one benefit on a study but you'll probably see a dozen negatives if you look at things long enough and we can't ask a chicken how it's feeling mentally. I think all animals are designed to get at least 12hours of light year round. Hormone levels do not stay balanced with less light and in animals where we can observe such behavior changes easily they only display negative behavioral changes. Nothing except critters that are nocturnal in the first place seem to have fully evolved to a lower light area unless they are native there. Before humans intervened chickens did not evolve in areas of the world where days get so short. Humans themselves have lived in those areas longer than chickens and still have issues with short days. I do not think an animal can change it's physiology enough to evolve to such short days without several thousand more years of breeding for animals that appear to handle cold and darkness better.

A chicken will not run out of eggs or stop laying any sooner because you provided light unless you also don't provide enough energy and nutrients to keep them healthy while laying in the cold. Chickens are born with many times more eggs than they can lay in a life time if they never slowed down layer as they aged. If we had a chicken lay the same amount of eggs year round every year for 8 years it would not run out of eggs. It would require good feed though.

 

[ella]

For those who have asked, adding red heat lights do not effect hormones the same way bright white lights do. It won't cause cancer and reproductive trouble so no worries there.

For those who think my flock is living in dark misery, well come on out and see them! Think you'll change your mind.

Hope you never need to stick a large gauge needle into your favorite hens belly to drain the fluid so her internal organs aren't crushed. Or call a dozen vets because no one wants to treat a chicken.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Folks here keep chickens at many different levels. You can't assume that everybody keeps them as cherished pets. While I enjoy chickens, the flock is my "pet", not individual birds. I have never named any of mine, nor would I consider keeping them if they didn't produce eggs or meat. While there have been some sick ones that I have isolated and treated for various ailments, there have been many that I have dispatched with a sharp knife. Perhaps it could be said that extending the life of an ailing bird for our own purposes, whatever they may be, is unnatural?


Edited to add: I re-read your earlier posts and you made no such assumption. You were clearly talking to people about pets.

 

[ella]

Thanks for reading all my posts.

It's annoying to be misunderstood.

I am in no way against lights in all circumstances I made that more than clear. I'm just speaking from my own experiences: it's a bad idea to put pet hens on lights to keep them laying all winter. I'm not talking about theories, I'm not a deluded lunatic trying to keep a cat on a vegetarian diet because I think that's what they should eat. I'm just saying what I have personally seen in my own flock.

I was wondering why this was bothering my and that was it, I guess, that people should think I'm trying to make my flock live by some sort of moral code or idea that sounds pretty but has nothing to do with reality. But that's ridiculous, none of you know me, you can't judge me, and your jugements mean nothing to my life, just as mine mean nothing to you. Which is as it should be. This post wasn't started by me and it isn't an attack on my way of thinking so I have to get over it.

It was very painful to me to loose 90% of my flock, 20 hens that I raised from fluff balls to pullets to layers and have them waste away from cancer or peritonitis. I wanted eggs that first winter so bad and I didn't know what could happen. I just wanted to let others know.

I'm quite done now, sorry if I offended anyone.