Lighting for Off-Season Chicks

[ChickyCh00k]

As someone new to raising chickens, I am, of course, reading and researching like a mad woman. I have day old chicks coming the 2nd week of September. As I was reading Gail Damerow's Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, I came across a small section regarding raising "off-season" chicks (hatched between August - March). Damerow mentions that, if raising baby chicks off-season, it is necessary to supplement the pullets' lighting to mimic the days getting shorter (as it would through Spring and Summer) to avoid the pullets' reproductive system maturing too early which would increase the likelihood of prolapse and egg binding.

The book says to find out what the total day length would be at 24 weeks of age (for me, that's 11:15), add 6hrs to that and start the chicks on that amount of light (electric and natural combined) for week 1 (17:15), then reduce that total by 15 min per week until reaching 14 hrs by POL. It then says, at 24 weeks, increase light by 30 min/week for 2 weeks to get to 15hrs. This is confusing to me because if I follow this guideline, I would reach 14hrs when the chicks are 14 weeks (not 24 weeks), so would I keep them at 14 hrs for 10 weeks?

I was only able to find one other resource that attempts to fully explain this on the internet (but her method is somewhat different). The poultry extension here in Michigan mentions it, but gives no recommendation on HOW to actually do it.

Does anyone have experience with this?
I did see one other thread here somewhere that asks a similar question, but I didn't see what I was looking for there.

Any wisdom is appreciated!

 

[AnnPann]

i read something similar recently and thought it seemed like a wildly complicated way to do things. too much math! lol. but it made me rethink getting fall chicks. i’ve never heard of anyone doing this in “real life”. curious to hear if it’s a thing people actually do?

 

[AnnPann]

this was in the “similar threads” section - just saw it. helpful info - exact same question as yours https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ght-hours-to-prevent-early-egg-laying.1515617

 

[ChickyCh00k]

but it made me rethink getting fall chick

Right?! Of course I read all this AFTER placing my order for Sept.

 

[ChickyCh00k]

this was in the “similar threads” section

Yes, that is the other thread I read (thank you for posting). There are a couple of helpful comments, but I was hoping to get a little more info (aside from anecdotes). Maybe it's just not something people concern themselves with. However, it is mentioned in both Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens and The Chicken Health Handbook (as well as a few mentions of this issue on MSU's poultry extension site - though they give no advice on how to manage the lighting for off-season chicks, they just say it should be done, lol).

As a new chicken mama (and someone with chronic anxiety), this will likely plague my existence for the foreseeable future.

 

[RubelliteRose]

We hatched chicks at the end of August last year. We just tried to match the light in the room to the sunlight of the day as much as possible. We didn't notice any difference in point of lay from the girls we raised in the spring One laid her first egg at 23 weeks and one laid at 25 weeks(end of January and beginning of February)

 

[ChickyCh00k]

We didn't notice any difference in point of lay from the girls we raised in the spring

It's really good to know you didn't notice any issues! Thank you for sharing that!

 

[RubelliteRose]

The book says to find out what the total day length would be at 24 weeks of age (for me, that's 11:15), add 6hrs to that and start the chicks on that amount of light (electric and natural combined) for week 1 (17:15), then reduce that total by 15 min per week until reaching 14 hrs by POL. It then says, at 24 weeks, increase light by 30 min/week for 2 weeks to get to 15hrs. This is confusing to me because if I follow this guideline, I would reach 14hrs when the chicks are 14 weeks (not 24 weeks), so would I keep them at 14 hrs for 10 weeks?

Even from my somewhat limited experience, this doesn't make any sense. We have had first eggs anywhere from 20 weeks to 40 weeks depending upon breed and individual- all from chicks hatched in the spring. Not all chickens are supposed to start laying at 24 weeks.
edit to add that the 40 weeks was our Speckled Sussex. Most chickens don't make you wait that long either

 

[ChickyCh00k]

We have had first eggs anywhere from 20 weeks to 40 weeks depending upon breed and individual- all from chicks hatched in the spring.

I think the book is just giving 24 weeks as a general "guideline" for maturity, not that all pullets will start to lay exactly at 24 weeks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I wonder if that is talking about the commercial egg laying operations. They use the egg-laying hybrids and typically delay them starting to lay by manipulating the lights. I've read they typically delay them laying until they are 23 weeks old, pretty close to the 24 weeks mentioned above.

Those specially bred hybrid pullets are bred to lay a lot of big eggs. They are likely to start laying really early if you don't control that. Their bodies are fairly small, about like a Leghorn in size when fully grown. Those small bodies don't need a lot of food to maintain like a larger body would so their feed to egg ratio is really efficient. But their smaller bodies are more prone to injury from laying large eggs. So one reason to delay the start of egg laying is to give those bodies and the internal egg making factory time to mature.

When they first start to lay pullets can lay some pretty weird eggs. Soft-shelled, no shells, double yolked, no yolk, no whites, really thick shells, yolk to whites size ratio wrong, and misshapen eggs to name a few. These eggs are not commercial, they don't sell well at all, and they can mess up the egg handling equipment or maybe teach the pullets to be egg eaters. The pullets are more likely to use the nests than just dropping their first eggs wherever they happen to be. By delaying the start of lay the pullets avoid a lot of this and start laying good commercial eggs.

Most of the studies are paid for by the commercial operations, whether meat or egg producers. They are the ones that can afford to pay for those studies. We can and do gain a lot of information from those studies but some of that stuff doesn't necessarily apply to our chickens. This might be one of those that are not really for us.

if raising baby chicks off-season, it is necessary to supplement the pullets' lighting to mimic the days getting shorter (as it would through Spring and Summer) to avoid the pullets' reproductive system maturing too early which would increase the likelihood of prolapse and egg binding.

She doesn't give any details. From August until December the days are getting shorter anyway in the northern hemisphere. I'm sure there is a very precise schedule of how long the nights should be at what age. The pullets don't start laying the instant the days get longer, they have to make changes to the internal plumbing and grow the ova to a size that they can make a regular-sized yolk. This takes time. There has to be a schedule of how to manipulate the lights to cause them to start laying on cue. There is a feeding schedule too, what to feed and how much to prepare them to lay.

This ties into why the commercial operations typically feed a Layer feed with a 16% protein content. It's not because they are cheap and want to abuse their chickens like some people like to think. They are a business and want to be cost effective, but if they fed their specially bred small-bodied hybrid egg layers a higher protein feed the eggs coming from those small bodies would be even larger. That would lead to more prolapse and egg binding.

We are typically not raising the commercial egg laying hybrids. Our hens can handle a higher protein diet as they have a larger body to egg size ratio so they need more food to maintain that larger body. A lot of our dual purpose hens don't lay that big of an egg to start with. In my opinion we don't need to manipulate the lights or manage the feeding as tightly as the commercial operations. In certain conditions, the commercial operations for example, manipulating the lights can be pretty important. With us, I don't see it to be necessary. I don't do it.