Light me up!

[Duckfarmer1]

After much back and forth about my coop and whether or not to put lights in it over the winter...my husband seems to have made the decision for me! He is not very hands on with the work. I should say...he builds, I tend. We had discussed the lights on a timer at the beginning of winter and pros and cons...he felt we should just leave things go. Last week I had to buy new ceramic heat bulbs for my mini pig, and I Bought two..better deal. For Christmas Chris surprised with a huge addition, well, rebuilding half of our coop! It’s way bigger and better than I ever thought! 12” high, 18” long, 10” deep..and that’s just half! It also has a little coop off to the side that we can close off for injuries and such. Anyways, now we have lights on a timer, sips hopefully more eggs. Which brings to question...will it help my pullets lay sooner? I have NHR that should start in Jan...and BO and Blue Orp, EE also due to lay in Jan...plus, I just put some oyster shells in there...

Our other eggs are selling really well, and, it’s starting to get really fun. I’m using the money to buy goat kidding supplies because both my goats are due to kid in early Feb!! . Wish me luck for lots of eggs!

 

[azygous]

What a terrific guy! He's a keeper! But I'm sure you meant "feet" and not "inches" when giving us the dimensions of the new addition.

How old are the pullets? If they are on the verge of laying, supplemental light shouldn't hurt, but supplemental light can stimulate pullets into laying too soon before their bodies are fully ready, and it can cause reproductive issues down the road.

I had some young pullets a few years ago that were probably just a few weeks from point of lay. What I did was to put the lights on a timer but timed to come on just fifteen minutes before dawn. The second week, I added fifteen more minutes, lengthening the day by half an hour the second week and so on until the timer was turning the lights on two hours before dawn.

The reason for doing it gradually instead of all at once was to create a more natural extension of daylight and avoid stressing the chickens with a very sudden exposure to a much longer day.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

Yes, I read that “really good article “ that art showed me about lights...that’s when I started wanting to do it...I was tracking my sunrise and sunset...the additional minutes, etc. my NHR are 21 weeks..they are supposed to lay around 5 months....my BO Blue Orp and EE we bought one month ago and was told that some were around 3 1/2 months and some were 4 1/2... so they should be ready to lay soon. And yes..I absolutely meant to put feet instead of inches...silly me... I sometimes get those two mixed up... all the nest boxes are ready for the pullets....what do you mean it could screw them up later if it’s too soon? Should I pull the lights? I sure don’t want anything to happen to my beloved birds!! They are soo sweet

 

[azygous]

I know how you feel about your new little pullets. I have five that began laying just before the days got too short, and they've continued to lay through these shortest days. They are my little heroes.

Yours are close enough to POL not to be rushed into laying too soon. I don't think you need to worry. But introducing the supplemental light gradually would still be what I'd recommend.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

Yeah, that’s what we’re doing...a few minutes a day, which, honestly, is the biggest pain of the whole process!

 

[aart]

a few minutes a day

You have a timer that can be changed by "a few minutes"?
My household timers only allow minimum 30 minute increments.

Yes, I read that “really good article “ that art showed me about lights

Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.

 

[azygous]

The little darlings are worth it, aren't they?

 

[jreardon1918]

That is a good article. I use icicle Christmas lights as well. After reading the article I added a set of icicle lights inside the coop as well as the ones in front of the windows. The lights are plugged into a smart plug. Every couple days I have been having it come on a 5 minutes earlier. They are currently coming on at 4:50am. Hopefully they come back into lay soon.

 

[Ridgerunner]

On laying too early. That's generally not a problem for us but the commercial operations manage that carefully. They use the hybrid egg layers, especially bred to lay a lot of large eggs efficiently. Part of that is that they have smaller bodies so more of what they eat goes to egg production instead of maintaining a large body. Also when a pullet first starts to lay she can lay weird eggs (strange shapes, shell-less, soft shelled, double yolkers, no-yolkers, yolks only, etc) and they are going to be pretty small. These eggs are not commercial and in some cases might lead to issues. Remember they are dealing with flocks in the thousands, not the numbers we deal with. They found that it is more economical over the life of their flock to delay the start of egg laying a few weeks by the use of lights and feeding. If they wanted to with those hybrids they could probably have most of them laying at 16 to 17 weeks, maybe even sooner, but they typically time laying to start around 22 to 23 weeks of age.

You don't have those hybrids. You don't manage them that way. Early laying typically isn't a problem for us. I get as excited as anyone else when one of my pullets starts laying at 16 weeks but I'm just a happy if she waits a few weeks longer. For those of mine that waited nine months to start I was excited in a different way.

I've butchered a lot of pullets and hens. Part of my goals are to hatch my own chicks and raise my replacements. I eat the ones that don't make the "keep" list. I've seen enough on the inside of a pullet or hen to know that a hen does not go from not laying to laying overnight. She has to make internal changes to her plumbing and grow tiny ova to yolk-size before she starts to lay. It's possible yours have already started making those internal changes. If they have, adding lights may be like turning on a switch. If they haven't and adding lights starts them it could still be a few weeks before you see an egg.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that chickens need 14 or 16 hours of daylight to lay eggs. I do not add lights and have had plenty of pullets lay their first eggs or hens finish the molt and regularly lay eggs with only 10 hours of light a day. Light has an important part in their laying, but that's mostly in triggering them to release a yolk to start the internal egg-making process so they will lay that egg during the day.

Before they were domesticated, days getting shorter triggered them to stop laying and use what nutrition they ate to replace worn out feathers. Winter was not a really good time to raise chicks. The days getting longer was a sign that better days were coming so it was time to get ready to lay eggs and start raising chicks again. Those instincts have been weakened with certain chickens due to being domesticated and selectively bred to lay a lot of eggs but they are still there. Days getting longer can still trigger many into getting ready to lay. It is a handy tool to have. Plus, by making sure that days do not get shorter in the fall you can delay or stop them molting and keep them laying.

But as with everything there are trade-offs. Days getting shorter can trigger a molt and stop them from laying. If you extend your lights in winter and stop them during the spring so they see the days as getting shorter you may trigger a spring-time molt. Not always but sometime. So you need to watch the length of daylight when you stop those lights.

There is another issue. If hens lay continuously for extended periods of time their bodies get worn out. They need to take a break and refresh their bodies. If you go too long egg production and egg quality can drop. For commercial operations with their special hybrid layers that's generally about 13 to 15 months. They carefully monitor production and quality to decide when they need to either molt the flock or replace it. I don't know how long our hens can go without that becoming a problem. I suspect it varies by hen. I've never seen this with my flock as I don't use lights. Some people on here that extend lights do occasionally run into these issues. Extreme summer heat can cause a drop in egg production so this is not always the problem. It is not always straightforward.

Extending the lights can be a useful tool, but like any tool you need to know how to use it. You are selling eggs and you may be able to use it to even out egg production throughout the year. Your goals are different from mine.

Good luck however you go.

 

[Duckfarmer1]

My

You have a timer that can be changed by "a few minutes"?
My household timers only allow minimum 30 minute increments.


Here's a pretty good article on supplemental lighting.

My husband had a timer that works in 5 minutes increments. He bought out a hardware store. We own 35 apartments and always need supplies so we moved every single thing..shelving and even the tags into our attic..it’s awesome..we’ll say...it’s in plumbing supplies...lol. Anyways, it’s working well so far....as long as we keep checking it, because I’m worried