Lightning for quails - darkness is comming

[Dan Ullerup]

Notice: This is not about lightning and egglaying

Situated: Denmark, where we have about +16 hours of darkness at winter.

I'm wondering if buttons or coturnix in winter would benefit of having artificial lightning so they have more time to eat and be active?

Ofcourse they don't use much energy by sleeping (though it can also be cold here), but the time where they almost can't get anything to eat - that seems like alot of hours. Especielly for birds that have high metabolism as I understand.

So have anybody experimented with this or know something about it? - that is, providing light for your birds, so they can eat more/be happier/healthiere etc..

Or perhaps even know about any research on the subject?

 

[DK newbie]

If it counts as 'experimenting' that I - also in Denmark - keep a trio in an outdoor aviary with no additional light and a roo and 3 hens in an unheated building with light (though not necessarily more light than the daylight would have given), then I have experimented.
Neither of the two lay eggs during winter (they stop around september and start again in april if I recall correctly) but both seem to do just fine.
I don't remember exactly how much light the group with light gets, but the idea is to compensate for the daylight they lose from being inside, not to add anything extra. The amount of light is not adjusted according to the season though - egg laying in the summer is most likely stimulated by whatever light gets through the small barn windows.

I don't know if you can use it for anything - I haven't weight them to see if they lost weight from the shorter days or anything. But I have seen nothing to suggest they do. Only sign of them being less comfortable in winter is that they flock to the water when I change it if it's been frozen.

 

[Hasve]

Scandinavia, yay!
I've heard that they need at least 14 hours of good daylight to lay eggs. I don't want mine to lay this winter, mostly because i don't have the room to brood chicks in -20c (Norway). I give them 12 hours of light pr now, and they also have a red heating lamp during night (to keep the water from freezing). By now they seem to sleep and eat in intervalls. They eat and jump around, then everyone lie down and take a nap before they are up eating again. I once checked the feeder at midtnight, and again at 6 in the morning and they have been eating and active during nighttime as well. (Maybe because of the red light, not making it completely dark?)

 

[Dan Ullerup]

Thanks for your input - though not sure I can use it for much, since focus wasn't on egglaying... and yeah, red light is light too

I have though come across that in Jodi McDonalds book about buttons, she recommends at least 9 hours of light for buttons (and that is more than the natural daylight will provide in Scandinavia).

Guess it is fair to say, that it would probably be the same for coturnix.