It a red bulb heat lamp sufficient light to keep hens laying all winter?
Is keeping the red bulb heat lamp on all night too much light for the ladies?
In answer to your first question, no. And a heat lamp uses way too much electricity to be efficient. Heat is unnecessary. A better option is an incandescent lamp of about 40 watts (depending on size of coop) or an LED in the range of about 650 nm.
It isn't a question of temperature but the difference in day length vs. length of darkness.
The other side of the coin is, how old are your hens/pullets and what breeds? Most breeds of pullets going into their first winter may lay right on through. Hens in their second and subsequent autumns will molt, during which time, laying will and should cease. They can't build a new winter coat that is 93% protein while also ovulating and creating a protein bundle that is the equivalent of a woman having an 8 pound baby every day.
Plus they need that off time to allow their reproductive tract to rest and rebuild.
They aren't egg machines but are animals that just happen to have been developed to produce way more eggs a year than their ancestors.
I respectably disagree with Sally in that, IMHO, 15 hours is excessive. I find that 12-14 hours is sufficient. The reason being that if one has 15 hours of light through winter and then stops it in, say March when days are about 12 hours, that sudden decrease could temporarily inhibit laying.
More important than day length is whether it is increasing or decreasing.
Keeping a light on all night is a problem. They need sleep and, like all earthbound animals, need hemeral lighting. A light/dark cycle daily.
