Lightbulb to incourage egg laying in winter

[Renthorin]

So I've been reading that you want to turn on a light around 4am in the darker months to stimulate egg laying.

What wattage? I've seen 40-60 mentioned. I was going to use a compact florescent but do I get one that uses 40watts or that is the equivalent of 40watts?

I run ones in the house that use 26 watts but are the equivalent of 100 watts. Those are BRIGHT and probably tooooo much light.

Suggestions?

I ask now as I am almost done with the coop and don't want to wait until winter to think about lighting.


Will

 

[Imp]

It doesn't need to be excessively bright. I use a 13 watt CFL (60 watt incandescent), but even less than that would work.

You would want to increase the light to about 14 hours a day or more. How long you need the electric light on would depend on where you live.

Imp

 

[nuchickontheblock]

We used a 40 watt incandescent light in our coop last winter and the girls did great with that. Had it on from 5 a.m to 7 pm, and started in the fall when the days started to get shorter.

 

[giggleboxfarm]

I dunno, I rather feel like they deserve a break - so if they stop laying as much when the light declines, I'll just suffer the lack. But starting the light at 4am seems excessive since you aren't getting light that early even midsummer - are you?

 

[Sorin]

This past winter, whenever we had a cold spell (below zero) I would put a 75 watt black light bulb like you get for lizard tanks in their coop for a little heat. I wasnt concerned about egg production so I went with the black bulb for heat, not light. Well, we had a week long cold spell so the light was on every night, and even the black light helped, by the end of the week I was getting extra eggs for the next week! So you may want to consider the black bulb, it does put out some light, and I think the black light was a little more calming than a bright white light. Just a thought

Good luck!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

We run supplemental light that equals the longest day of the year in our area, which is about 16:30 hours. The rule of thumb is that if you can read a newspaper in there then the light is bright enough.