lighting in the coop dont want to run electricty

[chickenporkarosa]

If it helps-I have 1 low energy(40 watts) one of those spirally things, outside of thier coop by the door so they can see food and water. The water dish is a 1 gal. heated dog dish which works real well. It helps scare away any pedators also. The temp here in Michigan has been in the single digits at night so I have a heat lamp in the coop, and they are laying 10-12 eggs per day. I sometimesforget to shut off the light, but it hasn't made a big dif in my elec. bill, maybe 2 or 3 dollars. Hope this helps

 

[lisebarb]

Quote:
I bought the timer from Home Depot for $14 and it looks like a regular power bar with 2 rows of 4 outlet plugs. One row of the 4 outlet plugs can be programed to time. So I've got two of those clamp-on lights (one down below in the run and the other up into the roosting space) plugged into the timed row of outlet plugs.

The winter pen I constructed is essentially a close-in of the lean-to behind my shed and there's electricity in the shed (my furnace and hot water tank are stored in the shed) so I ran the power-bar-timer out the back window of the shed into the lean-to.

I don't know it any of that makes sense so I'll try to remember to bring the camera out with me when I go check for eggs after lunch. I just came in from checking on the girls and I don't want to get bundled up again.

 

[Duppydo]

I'm on the same page as Jenski, and i'm on L.I.N.Y....My 25 hens have been giving me 17 -22 eggs daily with no added light. I have a 16 ft x4ft coop with two recylced sliding glass doors as skylights in a shed roof design. They get allot of natural light and seems to work for me so far. I think today is the shortest day of the yr and i got 19 eggs from my 25 hens with no lighting.My hens are very well fed with lots of fresh greens, laying mash and pellets(dumpster diving in food store dumpsters for thrown away lettuce, parsley, kale,etc they eat it all, i alway ask first), i don't know if thats also why they are laying well..The chicken farmer i work with a few hrs a week told me not to use any light yet because my hens are 6-7 months old and i'll just stress them out at this point.I figure a guy whos been raising chickens from a kid( followed in his dads foot steps)and has 1200-1500 laying hens at any given time and 1500 hundred broilers at any given time,with a very successful retail buisness knows what hes talking about...So far no added lights is working for me.I would say though, if your coop is dark,none or not allot of natural light, you'll need to add lighting...