Lighting in my Coop

[Koolaid]

Hi ya'll,

I have a nice coop but no electricity in the area. Has anyone added some type of battery powered lighting to extend the light in their coop for egg production? If so, I'm interested in what/how you did it. Thanks.

 

[ghillie]

We put up a couple of those push lights that they advertise for closets and such. We didn't need a lot of light. They are just right to check on the birds when it is dark....

 

[Koolaid]

My issue is not so much to check on them - but to add 2 hours of light (or so) each day to extend their "day". I see where it's not that hard with electricity but without that it looks like I'm going to have to instll solar power or figure out a way to run a timer to a bulb with battery power. I might use one of those push up things you use though for just that reason - I can see where it would come in handy. thanks.

 

[teach1rusl]

Places like lowes/home depot sell quite a few basic solar light systems. I'd look into something like that...keep it simple. But that would only extend on the evening side. Most people tend to extend the day starting early a.m., and I'm not sure how to swing that w/solar.

 

[marbekschicks]

We bought solar lights from Lowes for like $40. We have not installed them yet, but hubby will be as soon as the bad weather lets up. There are 3 lights and they have a panel that you place where needed for the sun and then wires for the lights to connect into it. It also has an on/off switch. We are going to leave ours on later in evening on the short days when it is not cold enough for the heat lamp to be on. We don't have actual electric to the coops, but we do have the best heavy duty extension cords run to them. We figure why run the heat lamps when heat is not needed or use the extra few hours of electric daily when we could buy solar lights for so cheap.

 

[Koolaid]

I think I'll see what Lowes has that you're talking about - that might work for me. thanks ya'll.

 

[showme69]

I will be starting on our coop as soon as the weather improves. I debated on what to do for lighting, reading about the solar stuff, etc. I finally decided rather than sinking money into solar or running extension cords on top the ground, I'd just run electric to it. I've priced everything and it will run me about $135 to get electric from one of the house panels to the coop which will be about 90 feet away, including three outlets, a shop light on the ceiling and switch for the light. I plan to do the work myself with a little help from my father hooking it up to the breaker box. Now, in addition to lighting, I'll be able to use a heater in the waterer to keep their water from freezing during the colder months. If your coop isn't an unreasonable distance from your home, you might want to look into running electric to it.