Light and Egg Laying

[jthornton]

I was reading this article from the University of Nebraska about light and egg laying and this part seems to contradict itself.

"When chicks are hatched from April to July, natural lighting patterns are sufficient, and chicks will gradually develop into pullets and lay eggs. If artificial light is needed to stimulate egg production, begin by exposing pullets to 8-10 hours of light per day."

Here in Missouri if a chick is born in April it starts out with almost 13 hours of natural daylight and by the time it's 2 months old it gets over 14 hours of daylight.

My chickens were born on August 16th and have had at least 14 hours of light a day (added in the morning automagicly). Anyone else adding light to their coop and run in the morning? My hope is to have some eggs by January so I don't have to mooch off my neighbor any more...

JT

 

[RonP]

This topic comes up often, my reply to a previous query, hope it helps:

There are a lot of opinions on supplementing light to keep the chickens laying during time periods where there is less than 12-14 hours of available daylight.

My coop gets 16 hours of light 365 days per year. Birds continue to molt regardless, as they do if living on or close to the equator, where the light hours are consistent all year.

Having had to install electricity for the thermostatically controlled water heater, I took advantage and installed a lighting system.

My system has two timers. The first is set to turn the lights on at 5am, off at 9pm.

Power goes on, passes through a photocell, then to a 300 lumen LED bulb, 4.8 watts, in the coop, and two 4.8 watt LEDs for the outside run.
All bulbs are warm white - 3000K

I light the run because I found the birds huddled outside the coop door in the dark one 5:30am morning... They have access to the run 24/7, as it is as secure as the coop.

The lights are on only when it is dark enough outside to be necessary (photocell).
The time on very closely mimics my Summer Solstice.

The second timer is set to go on at 8:30pm, off at 9:30pm, a diffused 200 lumen LED 4 watt bulb. This dim light allows the birds to settle in before all lights out. No stress as immediate darkness may induce.

This system costs less than $5 per year to operate. My egg production does not fluctuate due to seasonal lighting deficiencies.

Hope this helps.

 

[jthornton]

Ron, Thanks for the good information. I'm currently using an Arduino Nano and a timer to turn on the lights in the coop and the run at 4:30am as well as open the locked pop door. I close the door at dusk with the Nano. I'm moving to a Raspberry Pi 3 for control as I think the OS is a lot more reliable than the Nano. I just let the natural darkness signal them to go to the roost.

JT