Light in coop - required?

[waynesgarden]

a) Didn't say you were assuming a moral-high ground. As I said, others here have and I was warning the original poster that he might expect such attitudes, as well as the unsupported claims which I believe you made.

b) Not incumbant upon others to disprove an idea that the one who posits it can not or refuses to support.

c) Since I never advocated non-stop light, I have no need to defend such practices.

Good debate, though.

Wayne

[edited for spelling]

 

[smores.eragon.willymom]

I've been wondering about this issue myself...it's still in the 80's every day here in FL. We found a possum in the coop a few weeks ago and ever since then have had lights outside for them. Xmas lights.

We don't have the kind of coop that looks like a little house, just one that has three sides and a big yard completely enclosed in chicken wire. It's all sealed off so the possum can't get back inside (*fingers crossed*) and we put the light at the other end of the yard. We've noticed that they spend much of the night asleep under the lights. I don't know if they are still scared of the possum or just like the lights. They roost when it gets dark, but just for about four hours or so and then they move into the light and spend a few hours in the fresh air, sleeping. They are still laying every day. It will be interesting to see what they do if we ever get some cold weather (probably not until February). For now we will leave the lights. They seem to really like them.

 

[apukanski]

I was wondering, would it be rude to leave a night light on at night so they can see a little bit?

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

I use two heat lights, both on timers. since you are in a warm climate, you would not have to use heat lights, but you may find a red bulb at night will make it easier for you to see, as well as any birds who havent found thier way to a roost yet.

We use a white light on during the day, cause our roost only has one small window, and the white heat light is like having a sunny window. It keeps it warm, and more importantly, it dries the shavings, and the birds when they come in from the rain or snowy weather. it is on a timer, and is on from 6 to 6, and a red light comes on shortly before the white light goes off. I do a head count by the red light every night. We are in NH, so it gets dark here at 4 in the afternoon, and I have found that our egg production has stayed steady, not an egg aday for some, but close.

My birds go into the coop in the later afternoon, and stay on the floor, scratching and chuckling until they turn in.

They seem happy and healthy with this system.

Good Luck!

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

Quote:
We use a red heat light, in the winter, and just a red bulb in the summer. They dont seem to mind, and I can do a headcount after dark.

We also use a baby monitor to keep an ear on every one. Best 15.00 I ever spent!

 

[briteday]

I don't think that chickens can see very well in the dark. However, that is why they will go to roost before it gets really dark.

I live at about 40 degrees north latitude, about 9.5 hours of sunlight (give or take how close we are to the mountains that shadow us) and my all 6 RIR girls are still laying almost every day. We average 5-6 eggs per day and we've had two days that we got 7 eggs. We have no artificial light or heat in our coop. If temps drop below 0 I heat a river rock to keep the coop in the 20's overnight.

 

[waynesgarden]

Hard to be rude to a chicken, but a night-light would be unnecessary, in my opinion. Once on the roosts, my birds give no indication that they ever get up and go somewhere in the middle of the night. (One look at the litter under the roosts shows they don't have to make their way to their bathroom.)

I have the light on a timer so it clicks on around 3:30 am to start their day. If I'm up early enough, I see them through their window or skulking around the run like mysterious dark shadows. There is no artificial light in the evening which allows them to find their place on the roost as the sun goes down. To have them merrily doing their chicken things around the coop floor in the evening and suddenly have the lights go out, leaving them unable to find their roosts, might be considered rude.

Wayne

 

[silkiechicken]

I think one of the issues of light to encourage egg laying in dim short day climates is how that in warm areas, that do get the light, the birds are happy and warm like spring/summer year round. But in areas where it is dim, the weather is often bad, snow is out, freezing temps, and add that to their biological moulting clocks, continuing to lay in those climates is more stressful since it's not spring/summer year round.

I personally don't add light here, largely because mine rest for our cruddy rainy winters, and because running electricity to the coops just wouldn't make sense. They stil lay some in the winter though.

 

[debilorrah]

I think it's a personal choice. We add light from 4:00 am to about 6:30 am.... It hasn't helped with egg production much, but we figure it's consistency for them, so we will continue.

 

[ssteiner]

Thanks everyone for the good info. It leads me to ask a silly question, however. What kind of drop off in egg production should I expect next winter? Here in Southern California, in December the sun sets around 4:30PM and rises about 6:30AM. So we've got about 10 hours of daylight. In midsummer, the sun sets about 8:00 and rises about 6:00AM.

I have a very small operation - 4 girls (Partridge Rock, Golden Laced Wyandotte, Blue Wyandotte, Light Brahma). They live in a small (4x2x2) coop enclosed on three sides. The fourth, south facing side is half hardware cloth, half plywood with a door cut out. The door leads to a fully enclosed 6x2x2 run, where their food and water is located.

We (expect to) love having eggs, but if they slow down some in winter, that's fine too.

Thanks for any input.

Scott