Lighting in the winter

[BrokenRoadFarm]

We just got our chickens in May and have not been through a winter with them yet....curious to see what others do. At this point, we are not planning to light the coop in the winter - adopting more of a "let nature takes its course" line of thinking - give them a rest....but we will see.

 

[Hopper]

absolutely no expert with chickens... but light does make a difference

Horses, dogs, cats, etc. need normal day light hours for coat production, reduction. The longer day light hours in the spring triggers their shedding mechanism. So we put lights on in our barn about the first of February to start the shedding process on our show horses, they stay blanketed and by April when the first shows hit we are shed out mostly.

Ever wonder why house pets are constantly shedding, its because we mess with their normal schedule of day light. OUtdoor pets typically shed twice a year spring to drop the heavy winter coat and late fall to drop the summer course coat.

I would imagine chickens are no different, all triggered by day light hours. God had to come up with a system to keep things orderly!

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
It's not the heat that increases egg laying, it's the light, daylight or an ordinary light bulb. If you bought a read heat lamp (bulb) I doubt it will increase laying. If you have no window, how much ventilation do you have? And using a light to replace a window is not IMO a good idea; you need to be able to get fresh air as well as natural light in there, and they love to look out a window.

I have 1 foot deep and 12 feet long of ventilation near the top inside the garage. Our coop is built inside our garage and we do have more then enough ventilation. We can not cut windows on the side of the house. Having the coop inside the garage leaves us no choice for a window, so we put a light inside, we have electricity in the coop too. I love our coop. It's 12x4x8 inside fully insulated and 100% predator proof. Our run(22x5x5) is along side the house with a steel door. They get plenty of fresh air. I free range throughout the day as well. They use the 8 ft door vs a pop door also. During the day, the steel door is always open.

We don't want to increase laying, we just want normal winter laying. Also, the heat lamp is mostly intended to keep the water and our chickens from freezing. It's very cold here. We can have -20F actual temps for a week or so at a time. Burrrrr..........

 

[Nicole01]

Quote:
Sure, here is our light. The outlet is right behind the light. We are not sure where we are going to put the heat source yet. Either near the roosts or on the other side above the waterer(where I'm standing taking the photo). Our roosts are very low due to the heavy breeds we have. The cochin and brahma are not good flyers. I have the roosts at the same level, so there is no dispute who gets the higher roost.

 

[moetrout]

I am in Michigan and I don't heat or light my coup. I had eggs all last winter. About 3 a day from 5 hens. It was plenty for us. My coup has 4 windows though and the chickens get outside everyday except maybe 2 or 3 times in the winter when it was brutally cold. I think that helps because the little light they do get is natural sunlight. Even us humans need light to keep us happy and healthy. I don't see the need to push them to lay the same in winter as they do in summer. They work hard enough just staying warm, give 'm a break is what I say!

 

[Lovable Chicks]

Last winter I did not use a light at all and still got eggs. There was a drop in eggs in certain breeds (EE) but we got enough. We do have a good size window right by their perch though.

 

[Nicole01]

If we didn't have a light, our coop would be 100% pitch black. It will be turned on from 7:30am-8:30pm. I don't understand how that would be "pushing it". I would think the chickens prefer the light vs pitch dark. I think it would be mean not to turn the light on at all. Our chickens are safe in their coop, from people and predators. That is why we chose the garage. I'm disabled, so trekking through the snow would be impossible during the winter to clean the coop 3-5 times a day.