Lighting schedule for layers, how important is it?

[ladyj02]

I don't have a lighting schedule per say, but I leave the overhead light on them during daylight hours and shut it off for night time hours. Their brooding box is in my basement and I haven't used a heat lamp since the 1st week I had them (now going on week 3) so if I weren't to turn on the overhead light, it would be pitch black where they are. I love waking them up, they all rise up and run straight over to the feed. Putting them to bed gets a little noisy though. They crazy chirp for about 20 minutes before they finally settle down.

 

[birds4kids]

The lighting schedule they posted is likely some over academic precise study in how to make them come into lay fast as possible and lay as many eggs as possible as fast as possible in a commercial setting. For the backyard chicken keeper you are unlikely to care if they start laying a week later and maybe do so at a slower pace. Heck most of us I think endup with too many eggs due to chicken math.

I suspect the short weak light is to make them think it is winter so once they are older and you crank up the light intensity and hours the idea is to simulate spring and trigger laying.

 

[realsis]

I personally don't supplement light. I let their bodies rest when nature dictates.it's much harder on their bodies to force a continuous lay.IMHO by forcing lay they run a higher risk of prolapse and other reproduction issues than if a natural rest is given. However, if selling eggs is supplemental to your income I can understand wanting a continuous lay. I'm talking about hens not chicks, oops

 

[azygous]

Okay. Now that I understand where the OP is coming from, I am ready to comment.

!@#$%^&* &%$#@* !! (And the mods don't even need to censor me. I did it myself.)

Those instructions look too much like an owner's manual that comes with an appliance or shop tool. For crying out loud, these are baby chickens, not electric household gadgets.

As Blooie points out, the only light adjusting you need to do in order to have healthy future laying hens is to let the babies have natural day and night light patterns. That means not subjecting them to bright electric light 24/7 or even any time. I suppose if you're shooting for a commercial laying flock, you might be interested in this sort of manipulation, but it's still so over the top, in my view, I would happily take those instructions and put them down a garbage disposal.

For thousands of years, domestic chickens have functioned splendidly by hens laying eggs fertilized by a rooster and then sitting on them for three weeks, and then being available for the little fuzz-butts to warm themselves underneath her body until they get feathers of their own over the next few weeks. Then in several more months, the pullets among them start laying eggs, and the only light they need is provided by the big hot star overhead.

KISS! (Keep it simple stupid!)

 

[donrae]

I also tried to get my mind around those instructions and am baffled. I think I've heard of this before, but here we pretty much let the sun do our lighting

.

I raise chicks in the barn with windows. sometimes I use a heat lamp, sometimes a heating pad. They get light during the day. I'm in the PNW, so granted sometime it's dim enough you can barely read a newspaper

. I've found my production-bred birds pretty much always start laying around 5-6 months old, regardless of when they hatched. I've had a bird lay her first egg on Winter Solstice, even.

Living in a sunny climate, raising chicks in the spring/summer, how would you provide "dim" lighting, anyway? Confine them to the coop and toss blankets over the windows? Again, I'm baffled

 

[realsis]

Hi since I realize you ARE taking about chicks I'm going to give you my honnest opinion. I believe it's ALWAYS best to let nature take control. if you don't give the birds a break when naturally their bodies require it you are inviting reproduction problems. prolapse, internal laying, and more. you will also get less actual years of egg laying speeding her through her eggs. let nature dictate her cycles. she will be much happier. let her molt for goodness sakes do NOT try and stop natural processes. I think if you follow nature you and your flock will be much happier.

 

[Kmhv04]

Thank you to all that commented! I too was really thrown off and boggled by those strict/precise instructions. It made me second guess what I had remembered from when I was young and we raised chicks with simple methods. I thought we might have done something wrong way back when that may have messed up the laying abilities of those chickens. However as pointed out, as nature does it, it's not even close to those conditions.

I am glad there is a general consensus on the oddness of these "instructions". I am a simple backyard chicken raiser and I sell eggs to offset the costs of having chickens, I do not wish to push these sweet little hens to produce more then their bodies can handle.

Thank you all so much for speedy responses!

 

[Lelilamom]

Wait. Chicks come with directions?

 

[Blooie]

Wait. Chicks come with directions?

Not very good ones, apparently!

 

[aart]

Just cause someone wrote something down anywhere, and a few people actually read it, doesn't mean it's the best way to go or even correct/true...hahahahaha!!