Lights in tractors....

[Brunty_Farms]

So those of you who put lights in the tractors... first off let me say thanks for the idea... and secondly I would like to know how long you leave them on?

We are at three weeks now on pastured broilers they have been out on pasture since 7 days old thanks to the lights. I put 2, 250 watt red heat lamps along with a tarp to cover the pen. This worked great to keep the dew off of them and to keep them comfortable.

I have lost 4 birds in the brooder (weak chicks from the start) and only 1.... let me repeat that.... only 1 out on pasture. Now I'm sure some do better but to this point I have always accepted the fact that I'm going to lose about 5 birds / hundred to the first few nights on pasture. Which in my case it's a possible $100 / batch of 200.

So my question is how long do you continue the lights? We have had low temps for awhile now which is unusual... but none the less it's hard to raise day olds with 50 degree nights. Especially turkeys.

As of now I'm down to one light and a tarp only at night. During the day they are facing the elements and do just fine. However I havn't put them on the 12/12 schedule and have pushed these from the start. They are three weeks old today so I'm not sure how long to do this for as this is new to me.

Normally I go with the flow and just prepare them for night wich takes about an hour just to make sure they don't get sufficated from piling. But if I can increase the amount of birds I get to slaughter weight the more the better...

Thanks in advance.

 

[UncleHoot]

I haven't tried putting a light in the tractor yet, but at 3 weeks, they should be able to handle anything above 40 degrees, probably even colder than that.

I put my cornish X's out at 2 weeks old last summer, when the night-time temps were expected to be 60 or above. They ended up being the biggest (growing) batch I'd ever had.

I have 150 Colored Range Broilers now, and I'm planning to put them out on pasture on Sunday morning, which will be 2 1/2 weeks old. I might even move them sooner, as the temps inside the coop are getting too high on sunny days, but it depends on the weather.

If you have the light on a timer, and it's on for 8 hours at night now, you could switch it to 6 hours tonight, 4 the next day, 2 the day after that, and then none. That would give them 3 nights to adapt, but they will likely be fine, even if you didn't do that.

 

[wisdom_seeker]

I built a special tractor this year with closed sides, out of old closet doors and two small pallets. The roof is another door covered in 6 mil clear plastic and an old leaky tarp just to block the UV. I had my meat birds outside at 2weeks old on the 2nd week in April. It got down to the mid 30s at night but they did fine with the heat lamp. It was great no more shavings, bad smell in the house etc. All of my chicks go outside at 2 weeks now. At the time I had no grass just dirt and now it is all green grass!

 

[jaku]

I do a batch of birds in the spring and another in the fall. I get them pretty early in the spring also, because I don't want to butcher in hot weather or worry that my overheated birds are going to drop dead. I leave the light on in my tractor EVERY night, and cover with a tarp most nights, right up until the end- unless it gets really warm. I even leave the light on during the day if it's chilly out. I figure that there's no way it will hurt them, and it keeps them comfortable, and probably helps keep predators away too. This fall, I'll keep a light on them almost constantly, unless it's extra warm during the day.