Light in coop - required?

[ssteiner]

Thanks Wayne. If I thought for a minute my girls would do well with a light, I'd be all over it. If there's one theme I saw running through the debate on this thread, it's that if anything unites us all, it's a love and desire for what's best for our humble little birds.

Best to all,
-Scott

 

[curliet]

Okay, now I'll take a little liberty and mention an aspect of this that I saw mentioned in this and other related threads. Many of you mention that when the light goes off at night, the chickens will be left floundering around in the dark. I do have low level lights set on a timer. They go off at 7:00 pm. Here in MI it's all dark at that time during the winter. But I've noticed that my chickens, even in the summer when it gets dark later, actually are on their roosts and ready for night time before the sun goes down or the light is gone. I've been outside often and watched as they all go in as it begins to get dusky. They do scratch around a bit, and eat a little, but then are off to bed. So, they are making use of the light. I really feel like I'm doing the right thing for them by leaving the light on til after they are on the roost. So, where did the idea that chickens had to go to bed only by natural darkening come from?

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
I think the key there is low level light. Light bright enough to encourage more egg production produces different behavior. They tend to continue normal daytime activity, or at least a number of them will.

As light dims in the evening, my birds gradually go in and find their places. With your dim light, they still wander in and find their places. When it drops to single digit temps, I leave a heat light on, aimed so that the roosts are only dimly lit. As long as I turn it on a while before dark, they go on in and act just as they normally do, except a few do hop down for a snack now and then through the night. If I turn it on after they've roosted, they get agitated and upset.

What I was suggesting earlier, was that if there's a bright light on in the evening when the birds go in, then it suddenly goes out, some of them would be floundering around in the dark. On the other hand, if a light comes on before sunrise, and stays on until full light, they just start daytime activity earlier. That was why I advocated using a timer to turn lights on in the morning rather than at night, if one chooses to use added light at all.

Where I live I don't think they need extra light, but sometimes they need some heat. In areas with much shorter days, they may well need the added light to have time to eat enough, as another person mentioned.

Your dim light in the evening sounds like it works very nicely. Congratulations on having found something that works out well for your situation. I have some aggressive guineas that roost with the chickens, and if they have any light at night, they tend to peck the heck out of their neighbors. For that matter, some of my hens do that, too. So mine only get light at night if they need the warmth. Better a few peckings than frostbitten birds.

 

[gritsar]

T, I think dancingbear explained it well. You know pretty much how I am set up to raise my chickens.
Tonight it was completely dark by 5:30 PM. By 4:45 some of them were going in to get a drink or a snack and then headed for the roost. By 5 PM a few more had gone in and by 5:15 all had gone to roost, yet it was still light enough for me to see in the coop. The light had gradually gone down and they took that as their signal to roost.
On one memorable occasion I made the mistake of going out to the coop using Keith's dept. issued maglite. That sucker is huge and it lights the yard like the 4th of July. Needless to say the minute I shone it in the coop the chooks all started jumping down from their roosts and behaving as if it were a new day and time to get moving. When I turned it off they were all still on the floor. Now whenever I have a reason I to go out to the coop at night I take a large penlight. Enough light for me to see and them to see me, but not enough to signal them it's time to jump down from the roost and get busy.

 

[curliet]

Thanks dancingbear, and Kat too for understanding what I was getting at. Not only did you both clarify a thing for me, you also showed us all how posting a thing here on a forum can sometimes give someone the impression that we all need to see things the same way, when cirumstances for a lot of us are different. This whole thread has been a learning tool for many here, and was almost derailed a few times. When I see a post that has something in it that seems inconsistent with what I thought I knew about a topic, I often look to see where the poster is from. This can very often make sense of the post for me.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I like this idea. My next coop will have a skylight.

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Well, I noticed that my girls go to bed about a half an hour before the so called "bright" full spectrum lights turn out. By the time the full spectrum lights go out, and only the red lights are on-there is usually only one persistent chicken still out scratching in the bedding for those last few treats that didn't get eaten earlier. (The same one every time, our little banty english game hen.) It's quite obvious to me that it doesn't matter if the "bright" lights (and all of the lights) were to go out all at once, they have adapted themselves to getting on the roost about a half hour before the main lights go out, unless someone happens to go in there and give them some treats much later than their usual bedtime snack which I normally give them about an hour and a half before bed. Then I will occassionally find a number of them not getting ready, as they just have to get that last little treat eaten up.

I think too many people make suppositions without actual knowledge, just as a child who has never eaten a particular food but doesn't like it, because his friend doesn't like that food, and guess what-that child doesn't like it even though he never tried, it but his friend doesn't like it, so he won't even try it!!!

I can't stand picky kids-or their picky parents, for that matter!!! (A pet peeve of mine!

) When picky kids come over, they eat what I make, or they don't eat at all!!!

Yep, many people will disagree, even though other people's actual experience prove things quite differently for something that they may have never even tried themselves, or even if they did, perhaps they didn't try it long enough for their chickens to adapt to something different than what they are used to.

I dunno, what's the world comin' to, anyway?!!!

Edited to add: I really think there is a whole world of difference between a huge brilliantly bright mag light shining in a chicken's eyes than full spectrum bulbs. I really can't imagine ever using a light that bright-I'm sure my girls would have been very upset, and decided the sun was awfully bright that morning, as well!!

Sometimes comparing apples to oranges can be totally two different types of fruits!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
You have the second light, the red ones, that are on when your bright light go off, so your chickens aren't in the dark when the white light goes out.

I only have 2 outlets, one for my water defroster, one for the timer. I can set ONE light on a timer. But even if I did have a way to set up multiple lights and timers without overloading my circuits, why should I? Just to be like you? My method works for me. That seems to bother you. BTW, I'm tapering off the extra light, as here, where I am, they don't really need it. I was just trying it, and it didn't make any difference. I just don't want to take it out suddenly, so I'm making it come on a little later each day.

Some folks have no electricity in the coops at all. Some have more daylight, some have less. We are all working out what works for us, in our individual situations, that are all a little, or a lot, different. As long as I've found what works for me, I don't feel I have any obligation at all to try each and every variation that anybody else has come up with. Nor do I feel that anybody else just has to try my way, either, I share my own experience. If somebody wants to try it fine. If they don't, that's fine too.

Just because I like pistachio doesn't mean you're wrong if you prefer black walnut.

I'm glad that your chickens have adapted to your methods. Some of the rest of us have our own methods that work equally well, for us.

 

[Mahonri]

Light goes on in our coop at 6AM

Light goes off in our coop at 8PM

They are used to it.

Buggars are only giving me about 6 eggs a day at present. Must be moltling.

 

[dancingbear]

CoyoteMagic, I love that skylight. My next coop's getting one, too. What a nice idea.

Mahonri, black oil sunflower seed is supposed to help get through molt faster. My egg production went way up after I added it. There's a feed formula I got from a guy that sounds really good to me, if a bit pricey. I can't afford it right now, so I just upped the protein a bit (I sprinkle soybean meal on the laying ration before I scoop it in to the bucket I fill the feeders from) and added BOSS to the scratch and whole corn I toss to them outside, for treats.